The Change
by Thingygazinga
Summary: Percy Jackson is sent to Hogwarts, his presence perhaps changing more than anybody can ever imagine. But first, he has to deal with keeping his identity secret (pretty impossible) and protecting the one and only golden boy.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson...otherwise I would've already written a book like this...if I had the patience. (which I don't)**

Percy didn't know what to think. Seriously, as a demigod, he should be used to sudden, weird, bizarre things popping up. That didn't help his anger when he learned that he got another stupid, life risking quest to a school of magic named after pig pimples. And for what? To protect this so called "Boy who lived." At first, he was all like, "Jeez, he lived? Me too! Glad to know that he was born..." but then he learned that this Harry Potter defeated a nose less dude named Voldymort or something like that when he was a baby. (Percy couldn't help but think of a crazy replica of Hercules...) He was still not intent on going there, though. For gods sake! He just came back from a WAR with the frickin' earth goddess! But, of course, Chiron convinced him (like the thousand year old centaur he is) and now here he was, tapping his fingers on his leg in utter boredom.

Where was here? Well, it was that magical Hogwarts's express train. Percy didn't know why he was so desperate to come early. Maybe he thought that somehow the magic in this Platform 9 1/3 brick wall thingy might disappear and he'll have to go all the way back to New York to ask how he was supposed to confront Harry Potter if he didn't even have a way to get to his school. Or maybe he was too jittery and was afraid that the train will leave early, either way, Percy was really regretting it. Fiddling with his trustworthy pen-sword (Riptide), he peered out the window of his compartment. After all, there was only about...3 more minutes to wait...hopefully.

"Bye mum!" a red headed kid shouted, waving vigorously as he dragged his trunk after him and to the train.

"C'mon Lee! We gotta show you something!" another two redheaded boys (Percy was pretty sure they were twins) popped up. Come to think of it, Percy noticed he was staring right at a family of red heads. Just looking at them made him think of Rachel (his friend...or oracle), what with their crazy hair and all. Thinking of Rachel reminded him of Camp, which lead to his girlfriend, Annabeth.

 _I just have to survive this ride...then I could go contact her right away..._ He assured himself.

Percy stopped his tapping and stretched his legs to the other seat, trying to push out his nerves. Which was silly, really. He had faced titans and gods, and yet he was anxious about going to this school that taught witches and wizards how to use magic, something he only found out a week ago.

 _Might as well sleep through this._

And so like any normal demigod, he closed his eyes and prayed to every god there was that he didn't get any nightmares. The gods really liked laughing at him, don't they?

 **And that's it for all...I promise I would write more. Ish. But this is kinda a sample story. See if anyone likes it and continue on writing. So, if you thought this was decent, please comment! And Harry's POV is gonna be next...so yeah. BUH BYE PEEPS!**


	2. Chapter 2

"Hurry _up!_ Oh, I _can't believe you guys!_ Arriving so late! Where do you reckon we might sit? In the aisle?" Hermione scolded, dragging her two friends after her by the arms, Harry barely managing to keep his trunk with him. As soon as they neared the train, Ron and Harry hauled their trunks up, careful not to drop it.

"Come on, come _on!"_ Hermione said impatiently, tapping her foot and crossing her arms. When they finished, she relatched her hands and dragged them along.

"'Mione!" Ron whined, "stop being so bloody urgent! There's probably still an empty compartment!"

Of course, Ron was wrong. They were nearing the end, peeking in every door only to see it full or had Slytherins in it, none of them keen to join those ones.

"Ugh!" Hermione groaned, and Harry had to control every cell in his body not to go and copy her.

It had been chaotic in the Weasley household that day. It didn't help that Ron accidentally forgot where he put one of his books, of course causing more havoc. It wasn't Harry's fault! He wasn't really in the mood to group with the Slytherins, considering that it was already not the best day for Harry.

"Harry! Hermione! I found one!" Ron's voice suddenly called. Hermione turned from in front of Harry, shock in her brown eyes.

"What?" she said. Ron rolled his eyes.

"I said, I found one!" Immediately, Harry and Hermione were at his side. Hermione peered in and sighed.

"I guess this will do." then, she proceeded to smack Ron upside the head. Harry had to stifle his chuckles to avoid being glared at by his best mate. Hermione slowly opened the door, like she was afraid of alarming something (or someone) inside. Harry frowned. There _was_ nobody in there, right? Then he mentally face palmed. _Of course_ it was occupied. It wasn't like Ron to find out something. (no offence, of course.) But, it was better than , of course, there were Slytherins in there, but even Harry knew Ron wasn't that dim. He didn't want to be prejudiced against the silver and green house, but c'mon. Did he have a choice, considering his worst enemy (besides Voldemort) was in that house? Plus, all the people he met who were in the house were either stuck up gits or just plain...hateable. If that was even a word.

Anyways, Harry stepped in the small (ish) space, right behind Ron and Hermione. He immediately wanted to turn back around again, though. It wasn't that anything was wrong with the boy. (again, kind of.) In fact, if Harry had to say so himself, he would've concluded that this boy was what girls put under the category of "handsome". The teen looked a bit older than them (maybe 17?) with messy, wind-blown black hair ( not unlike Harry's) and a lean, fit body, the teen was nowhere near ugly. No, it wasn't the appearance. It definitely wasn't the smell, (oh jeez, that sounded weird) with the whiff of what Harry imagined to smell at the beach or something, the smell was not the reason why he wanted to run away screaming bloody murder.

It was the aura of power that radiated off of him like waves, making the air quiver and shake...well, it felt like that. Harry had never experienced an aura so strong, not including Voldemort or Professor Dumbledore, and when he set foot in, his thoughts instantly shouted, " _Dangerous! Need to get away!"_ That, and the fact that Harry was pretty sure he had never seen this teen , like the brave wizard he was, Harry just froze for maybe a second, then continued into the room and sat stiffly next to his friends, a good feet away from the boy.

The teen appeared to be sleeping, his head lolling on his chest and his legs propped up on the opposite seat. Even though his posture was relaxed, his face was twisted up in...pain? His hands were clenching and un-clenching while sweat beaded on his forehead. The teen was mumbling nonsense, and Harry was able to catch a few words, none that seemed familiar to him. That proved that he was having a bad dream, Harry should know. He had enough experience.

"Should we wake him?" Ron asked, frowning. Hermione scowled.

"Keep your voice down!" she hissed, "and no! Why ever would you think that?"

Ron rolled his eyes, muttering something about bossy friends. A few minutes passed in awkward silence, where Harry studied the boy, Ron's stomach growled, and Hermione blushed, for what reason, Harry didn't know. Another few minutes passed and Ron, not being able to hold the silence anymore because of a weird boy, jumped up.

"I'm gonna wake him!" he declared purposefully. It took a few more seconds for Hermione and Harry to fully process what he was saying.

"No! Ron-"

Too late. The boy jerked up, hands snatching up a...pen? Harry frowned. How was a _pen_ supposed to protect him? Apparently, Ron wasn't thinking the same thing.

"Woah! What _is_ that?" he asked, a look of wonder falling upon his face. The boy looked at him like he had grown an extra head, then understanding dawned on his features like he had just remembered something.

"This..." he said, talking to Ron like he was a 7 year old, "is a pen. You use it to write stuff..." then he chuckled like it was not true. Harry saw Hermione frown, the blush residing quickly. Then, the teen turned around and bored his startling sea-green eyes on the other occupants of the room. He smiled.

"Yo, peeps." He followed the greeting with something that was too quiet to hear, but Harry could've sworn that he said, "Huh. So they don't wear those crazy pointy hats and make bunnies appear out of nowhere. Bummer..." But he must've heard wrong, because the boy (Harry was really getting tired of just calling him, 'the boy'. He really wished that the person would just introduce himself already.) immediately looked up and flashed them a lopsided grin. Hermione blushed again.

"Percy Jackson, at your service." Percy (finally!) mock saluted. Over Percy's shoulder, Harry caught Ron scowling and mouthing something like, "Cocky git." Harry raised an eyebrow and Ron's ears turned as red as a tomato.

"Hermione. Hermione Granger. I've never seen you before. Where are you from?" she asked, and for a moment, Percy's eyes turned a little wistful, but as quickly as it came, it was gone.

"Oh. Yeah. I'm an American exchange student." he said, then, like he couldn't quite contain himself, he blurted out a, "You remind me of someone back in America!" There was a point of time where it was silent (again...), neither of them knowing what to say as Percy shuffled around awkwardly and rubbed his neck sheepishly. Harry cleared his throat, and Percy looked at him thankfully.

"That's Ron. I'm Harry." he said, gesturing to Ron and himself. After that, he winced and waited for the gushing of, "Oh my god! Your Harry? Like, Harry Potter? Like _the_ Harry Potter!?" but it never came. And Harry couldn't be more glad.

Instead, Percy just nodded. A flash of realization might've raced across his features, but other than that, he didn't show his emotions.

"Cool." And so for the rest of the train ride, they talked and ate (mostly Ron and Percy. Harry couldn't believe that someone could even come close to Ron's eating habits...except his was mostly blue.), basically bonded. Well, kind of. Harry still couldn't shake off the odd feeling that Percy will hastily change the subject whenever it hit too close to home. He couldn't help but think that the boy-teen, whatever, didn't want them to learn much about him. But, as Hogwarts steadily slipped into view, it was safe to say that soon, another wizard ( **Haha)** might just slide into his, Ron's, and Hermione's little group.

 **Okay? Horrible? Please leave your comments below! I know, this isn't the best worded piece of literature, but hey. I can't help it. I suck at this. Meh. SO YAY! Second chapter done... :) And also, I know the events taking apart are a little messed up, considering this is supposed to be during Order of the Phoenix. Sorry. But I'll try my best to stick to what's supposed to happen first and second and what ACTUALLY happens...unless it's really vital to the plot or something. (which I don't have...)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:(For the whole story cause I'm a lazy bum)I do not own Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. And if you see something familiar, it's probably from the actual HP book. I do not own those either. :)**

 _ **Percy**_

Okay, okay. Yes, he knew that he was supposed to protect Harry Potter and his friends, but all Percy really felt like doing was to just enjoy his short life and only step in when needed. Despite only knowing the trio for one hour, (okay...so maybe that wasn't so short...) he already could see that Harry was determined and confident, not afraid to blurt out what other people needed to change. In a way, Harry reminded Percy of himself...not counting the fact that Harry was _willingly_ putting on a robe. What kind of uniforms were that? Do British people always go around wearing their pajamas?

But, he reminded himself, these are witches and wizards. They weren't normal...who in the world knew how to put on a tie? And every day at that? Yep, definitely not normal. Percy had already given up on learning how to put on that...sinful thing. Now, it just flopped down awkwardly on his chest...that and his robes were half hanging off of him. What? Can't a man be comfortable in his clothes?

Anyways, there he was, walking with the little, teeny weeny first years, feeling so out of place. _Was that what I was like when I was 12? Jeez, no wonder Annabeth didn't think I was going to survive a day in camp._ Ah, that seemed like such a long time ago. Back when he was ignorant and reckless...oh wait, he was still reckless. He smiled down at a small boy who was looking up at him fearfully. Did he really look that scary?

He didn't get the answer, because suddenly, the crowd of minions stopped and Percy allowed himself out of..well, Percyland. What he saw made him want to sigh in relief. A lake...fine, it didn't look like the normal lake. It was black, but Percy was pretty sure it wasn't polluted. Unlike the Little Tiber in Camp Jupiter, this one didn't hum with power, (Here, Percy was thankful.) even though he could sense that a lot of magical, probably disoriented creatures lived down there. He really hoped that Hecate's (Yep. That goddess **(titan? Idk...)** was why he was here in the first place.) sayings of the Giant Squid was real. Percy thought he (she?) sounded like an awesome friend. (What? Can't he make friends with squids?)

The giant of a man stopped and beckoned some people forward to a set of little boats. At first, Percy had been wary of Hagrid, what with the, "Hello! I'm a human who increased in volume...and mass." size. Could you blame him, though? Percy was pretty sure he wouldn't have felt that way towards the big softie if the Giant war hadn't happened.

"Come 'ere. Oh, don' be scared. Nothin' gonna happen to yeh. Unless, of course, yeh fall inter the lake." Hagrid bellowed. Slowly, (Percy resisted the urge to scream, "ADHD DEMIGOD HERE! MOVE YOU BUTTS!") the crowd resided to the water until there were only a few people left. As soon as the first years climbed in the boat safely, Percy plopped in, making the boat wobble dangerously and the first years stare at the water fearfully, but he steadied it. Being the son of Poseidon had its perks. The group started to move leisurely towards Hogwarts, and Percy couldn't help but gape at the school, ahem, castle.

 _If Annabeth was here, she'll never shut up about the architecture..._ he thought. Quickly, he made the boat speed up a bit, not so much that it seemed weird, and not that little that it barely made a difference. Soon, Percy and his party's boat hit the rocky, soil-y land. He hopped off and helped the rest of the first years, too.

"Well, we're 'ere. Quite a sight, I say. Firs' time always a shock." Hagrid whispered, beaming kindly at the crowd. Then, they followed Hagrid up the stairs, where he banged his fist on the door. A moment later, a stern woman with her hair up in a tight bun, wearing an emerald cloak, let them in. Percy had no doubt that she was going to be one of the first teachers to say, "Detention." to him.

"Hello. I'm Professor Mcgonagall and-" Percy zoned out after that. He was pretty sure he knew what was about to be said (Pretty shocking, right? Shut up.) because all Hecate did after he learned that he was going to protect this kid in another community, was shove endless amounts of information in his head about the wizarding world. Which almost gave him a headache everyday. Now, he got why Annabeth called him Seaweed brain. Percy was sure that his mind couldn't keep up with all the magic spells zooming around. Thankfully, those days were gone. Now, he could actually focus...huh. He really should examine his surroundings. Percy looked around in awe, taking in the ceiling and basically the size of the hall and...everything.

"Perseus. Perseus! Perseus Jackson!" Percy blinked owlishly at the Professor, (and every first year) wondering what he missed.

"Uh..." he cleared his throat. "Yes?"

"You will be sorted separately from the first years. Only go up when you hear your name being called." she said stiffly, no amusement in her eyes. Then, with a swish of her cloak, she was gone. Percy sighed. People these days. Always had to be dramatic in every way possible. He laughed consciously at the curious expressions on some of the 11 year olds.

"Um...yeah. You could, you know, look away now." Which only caused more of them to stare at him, making Percy feel like a zoo animal. He was saved from the weirdness when a short call of, "Anderson, Lucy!" came from the stage, and a girl with blonde hair darted out of the group and to the direction of the voice. Percy waited, eager to hear what house she was to put into. Though Hecate didn't explain how they got sorted, she did explain a little about the houses. Puffball, Griffins, Slitherings, and Hawkclaws...or something like that.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Whoops. Oh well, he was close.

"Albin, Nathan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

And so on...and on...and on...and on...and Percy was really wondering how long it was going to take. Finally, it was just him and the little boy who was giving him the frightened look back at the lake.

"Zan, Jake!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

There was a thunderous applause and Percy sighed. He was seriously going to explode if anybody told him he had to wait any more.

"Yes, yes. Congratulations! Another school year is starting! Now, I have some exciting news to all of you. There will be an American exchange student coming. He will be sorted into a house, and you will treat him nicely..." there was a pause as Percy heard whispers break out, cutting off the man that oddly sounded quite a lot like Chiron.

"He will be joining in with the fifth years because back in America, the learning process was...moderately different. Again, I expect each and every one of you to treat him with the utmost respect." Here, Percy blushed. He felt like this man was regarding him like he was part of a royal family or something.

"Now, I present you, Perseus Jackson!" Percy winced. He hated his full name. A moment passed before Percy recalled what the Mcgonagall lady had said to him. _Go up when you hear your name being called._ Whoopsy daisies. Percy hurriedly stumbled up, and promptly tripped on the steps. A sense of deja vu came across him as he remembered back when he first came to Camp and tripped into the Hermes cabin. Percy quickly bounced back up, (even though he was pretty sure half of the school heard the thud of him falling.) brushed himself off, and strolled onto the stage...

...And tried not to cringe backwards. If he thought getting stared at by the first years were bad, this was one thousand times worse. Percy composed himself, even though he heard giggles and snickers reverberate around the Great Hall. Snickers, he could understand, but giggles? Eh. He never understood girls. Percy controlled his blush of embarrassment, and walked to the little stool in the middle of the stage. What was he supposed to do? Sit there and get stared down, then if he did a certain reaction, get sorted into a house? Seriously, he had no clue.

Percy glanced at the Mcgonagall lady who was staring at him in disapproval. She tilted her chin up, indicating for him to sit. Confused, Percy sat-

— and got a hat stuffed on his head. Long story short, Percy almost got a heart attack when the hat started _talking_ to him. After that, all he heard was, " _Blah blah blah, Loyalty, blah blah blah, Hufflepuff? Blah blah blah, No, Gryffindor, blah blah blah..."_

 _Just make up your mind!_ Percy whined. Time seemed to pass by so slow when you were anxious to just _do_ something. In this case, Percy was really craving a blue cookie.

" _Hmmmm...Ah, since you are doing that...it shall be..._

 _Just get on with it already!_ he snapped. The hat ignored him...kind of. Well, Percy was pretty sure that it didn't listen, but it did finally scream out a house name...which meant it technically _did-_ Gah. Whatever. He wasn't in the mood to figure out stuff. The hat was snatched off and Percy made his way to—

 **And that is the end! It's a cliffy! I know, I hate them too. But you guys would probably already know which house I would put him in. Personally, I was debating between Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin. All of them were for reasons! Sorry, Ravenclaw Percy fans. I just can't see it. Anyways, until next time! ...I'm probably talking to no one. Meh.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, so Percy made it into Gryffindor. :) Also a BIG thanks to all those who reviewed. When I got the email notification or whatever and I was reading the reviews, it just warmed me to the soul. (Yeah. I'm dramatic like that...) Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

"Wake up, dude!"

Percy groaned and rolled over. He was tired, and all he really wanted was to go back to his dreamless sleep. Well, blue cookies sleep...Percy slowly felt himself slipping back into his mom's apartment, the smell of those heavenly, mouth watering, chocolate chips melting on the top cookies...

"Wake up! We're gonna be late! Get up, get up, get up! Fine...we're leaving. Not our fault you'll be late to class."

Class? Huh. Percy really hated school. He wondered what Hogwarts was like. Did they- oh Hades. Percy shot up, his eyes widening, too awake for his own good. Harry and Ron laughed, waved, and slipped out.

"WAIT! No! Don't leave- Ugh!" he said, stumbling out of bed and randomly throwing on his uniform. His shoes were untied, his hair was disheveled, (then again, it always was...) his tie was hanging loosely, and his robes were dangerously close to falling off. Percy ran around the room, grabbing his satchel and stuffing books and the quills (seriously, was this school stuck in the medieval times?) into it. He slung it over his shoulder and sprinted to the Great Hall, losing track many times. Finally, he made it and he had enough time to grab a roll when the food disappeared. Percy shoved the roll into his mouth, and checked his schedule. Potions...potions, potions, potions...where was that again?

"Some friends they are..." he muttered, narrowing his eyes in concentration. It popped into his head a few minutes later, and Percy was sure he was going to be late...no, he _was_ going to be late.

And he was right.

Percy burst into the Dungeons, panting and sweating, his hair even more disheveled than that morning. For the second time since he first entered Hogwarts, Percy felt all eyes on him. He blushed and self consciously patted his hair down.

"Er...hi?"

The teacher, a greasy haired man with a dark cloak on (he reminded Percy of children of Hades. Was that stereotypical? Fine, just an overgrown bat...), scowled, his thin lips curling into a sneer. When he spoke, it was quiet but commanded everyone's attention.

"I see. New student cared to join us? 10 points from Gryffindor."

And that was that. Percy glared at Harry and Ron as he passed, and they both shot him sympathetic and guilty looks. The rest of Potions was a nightmare. With Percy's dyslexia, the words on the board looked like, "Afijksdljfalfjhsajfhf" in other words, a bunch of nonsense. Add the fact that the Professor's handwriting was in large, swoopy letters only made it ten times worse. Percy spent most of the period asking Hermione for help, because he soon learned that Ron and Harry were at the same stage he was. No help.

"Whats that say?"

"Cut up Frog liver."

"How about that?"

"Six dead mice."

To sum it up, the ingredients were pretty revolting. The next class was Charms, and although Hecate had transferred all of the needed magic into his mind, Percy still utterly failed. He kept on bloating up the pillows with water, or making something explode. It was pretty hectic, and he was pretty sure Professor Flitwick was never so glad for class to end.

Then it was break, and Percy couldn't have thanked the gods more. He quickly excused himself and made his way to the bathrooms, pulling out a drachma along the way. He grinned, feeling excited to see his Wise Girl again.

"Hey." he said, grinning cheekily as Annabeth fell out of her chair in shock. His girlfriend was still the same as always, with her stormy gray eyes that seemed to be calculating his every movement, and her golden locks.

"Gods, Percy!" she said grumpily, her cheeks tinted red. "Next time, give me a little warning!" Annabeth gathered up her fallen blueprints, no doubt of sketches of architecture.

"I miss you." Percy told her, and Annabeth's gaze softened.

"I miss you too, Seaweed Brain. How's it at Hogwarts?"

And Percy found himself explaining every detail to her, enjoying her company. Unfortunately, it stopped when Annabeth reminded Percy of his classes and he realized that he was probably going to be late. Again.

"What am I going to do without you?" he asked, smiling fondly at his girlfriend. Annabeth smirked.

"You won't. Now, get back to your classes."

"Okay, okay. Love you."

"Love you too." she replied, and Percy slashed through the mist. For a moment, he stood there, grinning idiotically into space. Then he sprinted off. Percy yet again burst through the doors late, and yet again found himself staring into a stern-faced Professor.

"You're late." she stated clearing, frowning in disapproval.

"Sorry, Professor." he apologized. Professor McGonagall sniffed and waved him to his seat. He plopped down next to Harry, and the dark haired shook his head at him

"You're just begging to get detention, aren't you?"

Percy shrugged. "Eh. It always comes at one point."

Ron snickered.

"You three! Detention!" Professor Mcgonagall called, scowling at Percy, Ron, and Harry. Percy shrugged like, "What did I say?"

 **Okay, so I agree. This isn't the best chapter. Meh. I'm lazy. By the way, it's gonna be Harry's POV next...I think. Eh. Bye Peepsicles! Oh yeah (okay, so not really Bye Peepsicles. Lemme cross that out...) so it might be a few chapters until I actually start following the plot of the book and possibly (fine, I will. But not that big) make some changes...And also (again) since school is starting again tomorrow-wails for five minutes while repeatedly banging head on wall screaming, "WHY ME!?"-the updates are probably gonna be stalled...sorry. But anyways, continue being awesome readers, even if you think my writing sucks, and, I dunno, enjoy life? Make lemonade. (cause when life throws you lemons-yeah this author's note is getting too long.)**


	5. Chapter 5

Harry winced, his hand still throbbing from the bloody quill. He couldn't help but wonder if Dolores Umbridge could do that to a student. Was it even legal? He wanted to go and tattle tale on her (Yes, it kind of sounded child-ish but can you blame him?), but he was pretty sure that nobody would listen. After all, he was being accused of lying that Voldemort was back. It made Harry angry that people couldn't see the bloody truth if it smacked them in the face.

He climbed into the portrait hole, nursing his hand and doing his best to hide it from his friends. All it would do is make them worry, and they already had more important stuff to care about than a cat obsessed woman.

"Harry!" someone shouted. Harry turned, frowning as he saw a certain green-eyed, black-haired, transfer student come racing in. Percy was grinning like there was no tomorrow, smile nearly splitting his face.

"What?" he asked, confused. Percy just gestured at him to come, and Harry followed hesitantly. Don't get him wrong, Percy was a great friend. Really. He was so care free and laid back that somehow he managed to befriend half the school. It was just that sometimes, Harry felt weird with Percy hanging around with his group so much. He was used to only two presences near him, a red head and a bushy brunette. It still caught him off guard when he looked over and saw a mane of black hair.

"Let's go down to the lake to...um, to work!" Percy said excitedly, nearly bouncing on his feet. Harry frowned. Did Percy know that they weren't supposed to swim in the Black Lake? Yeah, nobody really enforced that rule, but it was pretty obvious. He voiced his opinion, staring at Percy weirdly when he laughed.

"Whatever. Hermione and Ron are already there! And stop being such a party pooper. It'll be fun!" he said, tugging Harry's arm. Harry sighed. Leave it to Percy to be happy when a war was probably coming.

They arrived at the Lake, and Harry could see the familiar hair colors under a tree. He shook his head in amusement as Percy practically skipped to them. Even after knowing him for a few weeks, Harry already knew that Percy was obsessed to any water related stuff...well, mostly every water related stuff. He wasn't sure about potions.

Harry plopped down besides them, pulling out the History of Magic textbook. He could see Ron frowning at a piece of parchment, scribbling down random, chicken-scrawled words. Harry started on his own homework. After a few minutes of silence where Percy squinted and scowled at his homework, Hermione beaming with delight when she finished another essay, and Ron biting on his quill, the silence finally broke when Percy thought it was a good idea to dump water onto Hermione. And since it wasn't Hermione not to be reading, also a humongous book. She shrieked, tensing up as the water dripped, dripped down. Harry's mouth dropped open, fearing for Percy's life.

Hermione was a sweet girl, really. She probably wouldn't hurt a fly, (well, if it wasn't evil...) but do something to her books, and she will personally gut you. Harry watched as Hermione's face turned red, starting from her cheeks and spreading out. She looked up, a look of pure murder on her face. Percy, god bless him, finally noticed something was off, and turned pale.

"Ummm..." he said, slowly backing away with his palms raised. Harry and Ron watched the scene with wide eyes and Hermione began shaking with fury.

"You-you...UGH! _You intolerable, insufferable, obnoxious, annoying ..._ WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING! Now look here, young man. This is NOT to be laughed about you-"

"Okay, okay!" Percy chuckled, his hands going down. Hermione's nose scrunched up, and Harry could imagine steam coming out of her ears. Apparently Percy didn't know when to run, because he kept on chortling.

"Hey, hey. I'm sorry. Can't you just use a spell and then VOILA! It's dry. Haha. You remind me of my girlfriend. All she cared about was reading and books. You guys are a lot alike, you know. She-"

Percy was cut off as Hermione shot a stream of water at him. Harry heard Ron laugh, expecting Percy to become wet. Harry winced in pity for his friend, feeling bad that Percy had to change out of his clothes in the middle of the day. Yet, he didn't get wet. It was impossible, really, so at first, Harry thought it was just a trick of the light. But on closer inspection, Harry did notice, in fact, that the parts where Percy should've been soaking wet was as dry as it was. Looking at his other friend's face, he guessed they were thinking the same thing.

"How...what...?" Hermione and Ron stuttered at the same time. Percy looked confused, then panicked, his eyes widening and face paling again. Immediately, he was wet.

"Er...what?"

"You know what! How'd you do that? What's that spell? Did you..." Hermione began muttering to herself, staring at Percy like he was a enigma she had to solve. Finally, she settled on a repeating her two questions. Percy looked nervous, scratching his head and mumbling something about a family spell to keep each other dry. Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione, doubt on his face. One thing was sure, Percy was _not_ a good liar.

That was the day Harry became slightly suspicious. Why would they send an American exchange student when Voldemort was rising? Unless, of course, the ministry did, but that didn't make any sense. And why was it that Percy was so bad at spells? Unless American wizarding schools were really THAT behind, Harry didn't know what to think.

 **Yeah...this is really bad...I promise that no wizards will figure out that Percy is a demigod that fast. (I don't know if they will ever...) It's just that I don't think that Percy is very sneaky and it will probably be very hard to keep the secret (OOOOHHHHHHH! Okay. I'm crazy. Continue on.) that he's different from every other wizard as a secret. (wow. This is a boring author's thingymajiggy...do any of you ever read it? I don't... :D) But Dumbledore knows. Cause he knows EVERYTHING! (He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake...WAIT A POOP! IS DUMBLEDORE SANTA CLAUSE!? Haha. Jk...or am I? But would that mean he's also a stalker...? My deepest condolence, Santa. Just tone down on the...watching, kay? Thanks. :) )**


	6. Chapter 6

Percy should've known that good things never lasted. After all, that was literally the definition of his (and practicality every demigod's) life. Like, "You just came out of a war?! Great! Let's see if we can squeeze another one in. And guess what? This one is bigger than your first one! Totally awesome, am I right?"

He wasn't finding it amusing.

Chiron and Hecate had reminded him hundreds of times about how he had to try his best to keep his identity a secret. It was easier said than done. Honestly, Percy was expecting a pretty easy quest. All he had to do was jump in when really needed, unlike the dozens of other ones where the spotlight was on him. Now, Percy wasn't so sure.

The difference between this one and the other missions was that he had to keep to himself. And Percy was finding that harder than the actual quest. Protect a dude whom he barely knew? Cool. Befriend him and his friends? As long as they're not snobby poopbags. Befriend and protect, all the while hiding the fact that he was not a wizard? Ummm...sign him out.

One thing that Percy learned throughout his years was that he was never good at keeping things under cover. Nico would've been much better. Heck, even Frank or any one of the seven could've been better. But do the fates listen to him? Nope.

He really hated the fates. (Yes, he said that before, but hey. He couldn't say it enough.) The catastrophe happened in Potions, his _favorite_ class before Defence Against the Dark Arts, of course. (Note the sarcasm) The class was making a Healing potion, Snape swooping around and stuffing his pointed nose disapprovingly into the student's cauldrons. Percy was slightly nervous, considering that his potion was turning green and bubbling dangerously.

And yes, he was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to look like that. His proof? Hermione. Funny that wherever he goes, there's always that one person who happens to be smarter than him. Not that he was complaining. Percy preferred copying down answers from who he was 100% certain was correct than actually doing the work.

The incident that happened that day, he blamed the funny looking bean thing. It was perfectly logical...never mind, Percy didn't do logical. He'll leave that to Annabeth...or Hermione.

"Now, what did I say about cutting up the _blah blah blah blah blah."_ Percy stared blankly at Snape. He knew there were words coming out of his Professor's mouth, but he just couldn't hear it. If Annabeth was here, she'll probably smack him and scold that he should always listen to a teacher. Not his fault that most of them put him to sleep.

"Jackson!" Someone snapped, and Percy lifted his head from where it was falling onto the desk. What is it with Snape and last names? He was pretty sure that "Percy" was easier to say than "Jackson"...or was it? Meh.

"Huh?" he asked sleepily, smacking his mouth quite loudly. Nothing prepared him for the ruler to slam down on the desk. Even as he jumped up in surprise, his first thought was, " _They have rulers here?"_

 _"_ I am not here to teach students who-"

And this is the part where the stupid bean decided that it wanted to pick on Percy. It was just a simple little "plop!" sound. Nothing harmful. In fact, the sound might've made Percy laugh before, but now he was pretty sure it was going to be the end of him. What came after the plop sound...ugh.

"Uh oh..."

He heard someone say. Snape (thankfully) turned his attention to someone behind Percy.

"Longbottom! What did you-"

 _BOOM!_

That was the sound of the potion exploding. He heard Hermione scream something like, "EVERYONE SEEK COVER! DON'T LET THE LIQUID TOUCH YOU!"

Which literally translated to, "IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE STUCK IN THE HOSPITAL FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK, I ADVISE YOU TO NOT EVEN GET CLOSE TO THE SUBSTANCE!"

And personally, Percy wasn't really looking forward to spending his days staring at a white-wash wall. (Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was thinking that "white wash wall" was quite the tongue twister.)

But then, like any other day, some potion god or something, decided that he was bored and wanted to pick on Percy.

The potion exploded right at him.

"AHHHHHH!" he screamed. (very manly, of course) His options of not going to the hospital suddenly seemed very slim. His head was going overdrive as he desperately tried to find the spell that projected an invisible shield. Unfortunately, his mind refused to cooperate during split seconds, so Percy ended up using his demigod powers. The demigod powers that not one, but two people (well...centaur and goddess, that is) told him not to use. The demigod powers that would probably make everyone _very_ suspicious. Yep.

His reflexes immediately responded once his brain refused to listen, and Percy raised his hands up, stopping the water from hitting himself. Everybody that was looking his way stopped and gawked.

Percy paled considerably. _Okay. Don't panic. Slowly move the water so it seems that it was always going the other way._

He flicked his hand subtly, which would've worked if half of the class wasn't staring at him and watching every move. Percy shifted nervously and peeked at the cauldron that exploded. Lying there innocently was a weird bean thingy.

 _Stupid bean._

"Ummm..." he started, contemplating whether or not he should use the mist on them, but then immediately backtracked. He wasn't the best at using it, leave that to Hazel. The wizards and witches will probably remember a bizarre memory of him eating blue cookies. He rather not risk that. Hopefully, they'll forget about his incident soon.

"Uhh...Persassy out!"

Percy never sprinted out of class faster.


	7. Chapter 7

Hogwarts was a big school. In fact, Harry was pretty sure that Hogwarts was bigger than any other school in Britain, what with all the space needed for magical items and stuff.

So naturally, the rumors of Percy and his trick with the potion reached everybody's ears by the evening.

Harry was quite confused. If Percy could do spells non-verbally (which took a lot of effort and power), then why in the world was he rotton in every class? Seriously. Even Neville could do a better _Wingardium Leviosa_ than Percy. No offense, of course. Hermione seemed to be thinking in the same direction as Harry.

"It doesn't make sense!" she was saying, scowling at her textbooks. Her mouth was turned down, brown eyes sharp and calculating. As if Percy was an enigma she couldn't solve. And knowing Hermione, she hated it when she didn't know the answer to a question. Harry suddenly felt bad for Percy. He was probably going to get some serious questioning...if they found him. Right after the incident, Percy disappeared, most likely trying to hide from the gossiping students.

But Harry was just as curious, though he felt that the answer was right under their noses, but they just weren't noticing it. And that confused him even more.

"First, it was the water spell I sent at him. Did you guys notice that he didn't even get wet for a second? And then he was tripping over his own words trying to cover up what we saw. Now, he controlled a potion from hitting him. Anyone getting the connection?" Hermione whispered furiously, gesturing wildly with her hands.

Several people that passed glanced at her weirdly. Harry couldn't care less, thinking over what Hermione said. Connection? Hmmm...before Harry could work it out himself, Hermione had already answered her own question.

"They're a _ll_ related to water! Well, liquid. And I bet my buckets that if Percy had another slip up, accident, incident, or whatever, it'll all point to the direction of _water!"_ Hermione hissed.

Ron frowned, a pensive expression on his face.

"You don't know that Hermione. It's probably noth-"

"Nothing!?" she chuckled dryly. "Ron, how many people do you know that in _fifth_ year could do those...those things that Percy had done?"

Ron didn't answer and Hermione looked smug.

" _Exactly!_ And did either of you guys notice that tatt-"

She once again got cut off.

"Outrageous! Nobody is that powerful. If you spread one more silly rumor, I will- DETENTION MR. SMURPHY!"

Harry rolled his eyes at the sorry excuse of a defense teacher. Hermione started off once again once they reached a secluded area.

"As I was saying, did you notice the-"

There was a scuffling sound and the Hermione stopped talking, a finger up to her lips. Then, very slowly, she gestured to a classroom, the double doors shut closed.

Harry, confused, glanced at Ron, to find him just as blank as him.

"Er, Herm-"

She threw open the door, revealing Percy with a very deer-in-the-headlights look.

Hermione smiled sweetly.

"Hello, Percy."

"Errrrmmmmmm...LOOK! A flying cat! Um, cow...fish! A flying cat-cow-fish!" Percy exclaimed, gesturing wildly behind Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Nobody looked, and Percy shifted awkwardly, biting his lip and widening his eyes innocently.

Hermione rolled her eyes, slammed the doors closed, cast a silencing spell, and then rounded on Percy. Harry and Ron right beside her.

"So. Care to tell what happened in Potions?"

Percy's eyebrows furrowed together. "What Potions? What? What? I don't know what the Hades your talking about. Hehehehehehe...ehehe?"

Harry watched as Hermione switched to her "Professor" look. She heaved her bag onto one shoulder, took out a big, fat book, and stared Percy down. She apparently forgot that Harry and Ron were even in the room.

"Percy, I've been doing some research and I've figured out that there is no such thing as Hecate's wizarding school. Unless you were joking when you told us that, then do you care to explain?"

"I was joking!"

Hermione raised an eyebrow, and Harry and Ron both glanced at Percy sympathetically.

"Um...I mean that...uh, well...the school's kinda secretive, so it's kinda no surprise that you can't find anything on it?"

"Mmhmmm..." Hermione said, then glared at Percy sweetly. If that was even possible. "So why'd you say you were joking the first time?"

Percy blinked. Then blinked again. A blank look came over his face, and he made an intelligent noise like, "Uh..duiduhhuh?"

Harry sidled up, feeling left out of the situation. To be truthful, he was rather thankful to the amount of drama...well more drama...that Percy had created in Hogwarts. It took his mind off of the dreams...

 _No...don't go down that road._

He blocked out the curious dreams, and instead focused on Percy's panicking face.

"Percy, we're your friends. You could tell-"

"I can't."

Needless to say, an awkward silence appeared after that. Percy glanced around restlessly, tapping his fingers. He bit his lip guiltily.

"I mean our school is just...different from yours, ya know? Like...really different." Percy finished lamely. Harry's eyes narrowed. He could tell that Percy wasn't telling the whole truth. (which proved that he was just that bad of a liar)

Hermione must have sensed it, too, because her expression switched back to the...well, normal Hermione face, and she pulled back the heavy book she was holding, and stowed it into her bag. She shot Percy a, This-is-not-over look, and then walked away with her nose stuck importantly in the air.

Ron followed as soon as Hermione stepped out of the empty classroom, looking awkward. Harry stayed a little longer, studying Percy. (he was sitting down, looking like a kid caught with his hands in a biscuit jar) Harry frowned. This year was turning out to be more and more alike as his first...and second...oh bloody Hel. All his years were always going through the same schedule. Literally. And now, in his fifth year, not only does he have the mysterious corridor-door dream, here comes Percy (no offense. Percy was cool. But did he have to be so...secretive?) with his water powers. And then, Hermione goes all brilliantly brilliant and composes an idea of Harry _teaching_ a bloody defense against the dark arts class. Yep. This year was definitely not heading down the peace and quiet path.

Harry strolled out of the classroom, (trying to look as un-suspicious as possible. Just because he was a nice friend.) a thousand thoughts weighing his mind.


	8. Chapter 8

_Nope. Nope. Definitely not-AH!_

Percy pumped his fists up in excitement, then did a little happy dance, kicking his feet up in the air and waving his arms around like a maniac. A first year passed him, giving him an odd look. But did he care? NO! CAUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, HE DIDN'T GET LOST! He calmed himself down as a teacher...sorry, _professor_ passed him, and shot Percy a dirty look.

Now...Percy's mood dimmed. What did he have to do again? Walk around? Run? Eat blue cookies seven times? He tried pacing back and forth in front of a wall. Nothing happened. He even tried jog-jumping and chanting 'I love blue cookies! Cookies are awesome!' Hey. It was worth the try. He was even being _cautious_ , (He was never cautious...hmm...somebody should mark this as an important day. The Percy's being cautious-nope. Shut up ADHD. Great. Now he was talking to himself. And he was probably crazy. _And_ he's ranting. Okay, shut up brain, okay? Okay.) checking that nobody was watching him. It was both for the sake of his reputation and the fact that Hermione had pounded into his head that it was a _secret_ group. Percy didn't know why he was the only one that Hermione repeated that to one hundred times. Okay, maybe not, but you get the point.

So, anyways, Percy was starting to lose hope. What if...what if he didn't really get to the right place? He checked the back of his hand, where he decided to write a "7" and a "3" on it...wait. What did that mean again? And was that really a seven? Oh bloody Hades...crap. Where did _that_ come from? Eh.

Percy stood frozen for a second, thinking hard. What else happened at the meeting Harry "held". Yeah, it was kind of awkward... _no, brain. Do not go there._ Percy puffed out his cheeks, and held his breath, as if that will make him remember more details about the...wait. WHAT WAS THE ROOM CALLED!?

Recreation...R...R something...or was it P? P as in Percy. His name. Well, his nickname. Perseus was a son of Zeus. And didn't Perseus meant "to destroy"? Who would name their kids that? Like, "Oh, what a cute little baby. I WILL NAME HIM DESTROY!" Then again, that kind of did match him. He kind of destroyed Mount St. Helens...and the Golden Gate thingymabobber...but it technically wasn't his fault! He just-

"Percy."

He snapped out of his thoughts, blinking like an owl at the person who said his name. He beamed.

"Luna!"

She blinked owlishly back, tilting her head. Percy couldn't help but think that she had all the characteristics of an Athenian. And that reminded him of Annabeth. And then that reminded him of-

"The nargles are here, quick." And Luna grabbed his arm, strolled a few paces forward until they reached a ridiculous portrait, paced three times in front of it, and then BAM. There it was. The Room of angry babies destroying famous architecture.

Percy sighed. He knew he wrote something right on his hand.

As Percy entered through the magical door, a blue cookie appeared in his right hand, and an owl pendant with familiar startling grey eyes in his left. He shoved the cookie in his mouth, and hastily stuffed the pendant in his pocket, glancing around nervously as he chewed.

"Percy-"

He swallowed, almost choking, and whirled around with a grin, his arms splayed around him like he was saying, "TADA!"

"HEEEYYY!" He said loudly, dragging out the e. Harry looked at him weird.

"Um..."

Percy blushed and positioned himself into a normal stance, clearing his throat awkwardly.

"Uh, you were saying?" he asked, unconsciously reaching into his pocket and fingering riptide. It was a habit, okay?

"...well, glad to see you here. Ummm...yeah." And Harry slinked away. Percy sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Things seemed so tense between him and Ron, Harry, and Hermione, just because of what happened a few weeks ago. The incident of Percy and the potion had dwindled down a bit, switching to another bigger, newer topic, which Percy was thankful of. He didn't think he could survive another day of people whispering behind his back and pointing. If only...

"Alright everybody. Pair up!" Harry's voice rang through the room, and Percy jumped a bit, startled.

He stood there while everyone moved and chattered around him. At the last minute, he slid across from Luna, offering a small smile at her.

The rest of the "class" was a blur. It just consisted of him failing at the spells, but dodging Luna's attacks pretty well. Perks of being a demigod, he guessed. But then again, a lot of the spells didn't even have to hit the other person in order to be effective. So really, being a demigod was pretty useless in the wizarding world if you can't actually use your extra power of being one.

 _Stupid quest. Stupid wars. If Dumbledore knows about me, then whose to say that other people would care?_

But even as he thought that, Percy knew deep within (though not that deep...so at the surface...) that wars were wars. There were always spies, traitors, double agents, and really, you can't tell who's on your side or not. Unless you had a awesome lie detector thingy that could also look into the person's brain and figure out their true intentions.

 _That would've been useful..._ Percy thought darkly, his thoughts dampening his mood.

Someone's hand clapped down on his shoulder and Percy almost retrieved riptide and swung it, but stopped himself as his hand was halfway to his pocket. He grimaced at his mistake and turned around without any slip ups, facing Harry. Percy glanced around, surprised to see the last of the people trickle out. He spotted Hermione walking off in a group of girls, laughing and glancing discretely at Ron whose face was red, rubbing his neck in embarrassment. Percy didn't really blame him, after all, he had been beaten by his girl friend. (Trust him, he knew that feeling all too well...a little bit more than too well...) Percy squinted at the both of them, his eyebrows raising. This situation seemed a bit familiar...

Before he could decipher what it was reminding him of, his thoughts were once again interrupted by Harry.

"So, Percy," Harry said awkwardly.

"Mmmhmmm?"

This was weird. Usually Percy was the one that came up to people and just forgot what he was about to say. Or he just wanted to talk to the person, and then just repeated the person's name over and over again because he really didn't know what to say.

Percy smirked, about to tease Harry when suddenly a book the size of how many blue stuff Percy eats in a week (it was quite a lot) appeared in front of them. It was old, dusty, and a faded turquoise color. On the cover was a man holding a trident, fancy script spelling out _Poseidon_ in big, bold letters.

For a second, he and Harry both stared at the book with wide eyes, neither of them moving. Somewhere in his brain, Percy was panicking and screaming, going back to when Luna told him that the Room of Requirements gave you what you wished for when they were dueling, and crap he definitely _was not_ thinking of his dad at that moment. So either one, a big greek fan person was there in the room, or two, Harry was trying to figure out who Percy was in his head.

Across from him, Harry raised an eyebrow questionably. He reached out, opening his mouth to ask a question, when the book disappeared. Just like that. Percy's shoulders sagged in relief, crossing his fingers that Harry wouldn't think anything about it.

He had the worst luck, didn't he?


	9. Chapter 9

"So? What about now?"

"Not yet, Ron. Just lemme finish this chapter."

...

"Okay. What about now?"

"Harry, sshhhhhh! You're the one who gave this to me! Now quiet!"

...

"Well? How ab-"

Hermione exploded at Harry and Ron, slamming the book onto the table in front of them, rattling all the silverware and tipping over a goblet of pumpkin juice, all the while blowing dust into the faces of the people around them. Through the coughing and glaring directed at her, Hermione managed to wack the two boys on the head with her "cover" book. They both whined an "ow" and rubbed their heads.

"Will you two bloody shut up!?"

Silence. Then, "Language, Her-"

"OH MY BLOO-AND LOOK WHO'S-RON I-" Hermione stormed off out of the Great Hall, the ginormous book tucked under her arm, leaving Harry and Ron sitting there with new-formed bruises. Ron sighed as he shoved a spoonful of pudding into his mouth.

"Bloody temper she has there." he said around the mush in his mouth. Harry looked away politely. Unconsciously, he traced the _I will not tell lies_ scars on his hand, biting his lip. With Hermione gone with the book, there was nothing important to distract him anymore. His thoughts went to his dreams once more, and the Quidditch game that he had a bad feeling about. Harry almost drew blood from his lips as he thought about that. He sighed.

It seemed that nothing went right without something going wrong in all his years at Hogwarts. Harry mournfully spread his marmalade over the piece of toast he held in his hands, not absorbing the nervous energy from Ron beside him. Just as he peeled off the crust on his sandwich, someone slid into the seat next to him, plucked the toast from his hand, and ate it in two large bites. Percy blinked at him innocently with his chipmunk cheeks. He waved hello, and Harry mumbled it back, having his food getting stolen by Percy so much that he couldn't even get angry anymore.

He reached for another pair of toast.

"Ser..." Percy muttered, still chewing and swallowing over his words. "Gerd Lu..ck werth da Quidditch match tommorow." he directed towards Ron and Harry. Both of them smiled back, though Harry was friends with him long enough to figure out the, "Thanks. But stop reminding me." meaning behind it.

There was a snicker behind Harry as someone "accidentally" bumped into Ron, making him pitch forward and smash his head against the table. Draco full out laughed as he stalked away with his posy, his white blonde hair slicked back and silver and green scarf swinging around like he owned the world.

"Good luck, Weasley, on the Quidditch game tomorrow. Or should I say, good luck on not failing as bad!" Draco called over his shoulder, chuckling like what he said actually made sense. His Slytherin buddies shrieked "Weasley is our king" in a high pitch, girly voice, faking damsels in distress.

Ron's ears turned red.

"Ignore him." Both Harry and Percy said, but Harry knew that both of them wanted to just go after Malfoy and strangle him. (instead, to prevent further violence from happening, Harry just tried to remember every embarrassing thing that Draco did and silently laughed in his head.)

There was a comfortable yet tense silence as the three boys continued on with their breakfast. Percy yet again stole the next piece of toast from Harry, shoved it into his mouth, then spit it back out.

"Ugh! Oranges!?" he asked, wiping his tongue while reaching for the pumpkin juice in front. Percy glugged it down, but still had a constipated look on his face.

"Ugh."

Harry was too tired to react. Instead, he settled for just some scrambled eggs. His mind was clouding on the edge of slipping to the repetitive dream he had been having and his Occlumency lesson with Snape that was coming up soon. Something he was looking forward to _greatly_.

He miserably shoved a spoonful of eggs into his mouth and then rubbed his weary eyes, his lids feeling like they were weighed down by a troll. Harry's thoughts were interrupted when a dreamy, "Hello, Harry. Percy. Ron." said behind him.

Harry flinched furiously, completely caught off guard. "Oh, erm-"

"Helllo Luna!" Percy chirped up beside him, turning his bright sea green eyes on the girl. Luna beamed back, her eyes a bit more focused then usual. But Harry didn't really pay attention to that. His eyes were on the huge, furry mess on top of Luna's head.

"Umm...er, Luna?"

"Mmmm?"

"What's _that_ on your head!?" Ron cut in, his blue eyes widening at the hat-what Harry suppose was a Lion-that was perched on the blond's noggin.

"It's the Gryffindor's mascot. It's showing that I'll be cheering for your team." she explained. Her eyes glowed excitedly as she quickly exclaimed, "Look what it can do!"

Luna tapped the lion with her wand, and it let out a deafening roar that made everyone within a 50 feet radius flinch and cover their ears.

Percy was chewing thoughtfully, gazing up at the lion. Then he did what Harry assumed was a smile, and lifted his hands up to his cheek in a thumbs up. Luna practically glowed in pride as she flaunted off, thanking Percy.

The rest of the day was a blur. He survived DADA, which was good...maybe. And by the time Hermione, Ron, and Harry all had a free time off, they huddled together around the huge _Poseidon_ book, made sure that Percy was nowhere in sight and preoccupied with something else, then started their discussion. Well, more like them listening to Hermione as she spoke.

"I skimmed through most of them, but the only thing I learned is that Poseidon is the greek god of the seas, earthquakes, and more. He's part of the Twelve Olympians, and one of the oldest gods. His symbols include the horse, a trident-which is his weapon of power-, and dolphin, et cetera. His brother Zeus-who later became the king of the gods-freed him from his dad's, Kronus's, stomach and-"

"Wait! Hold your horses!" Ron cut in. (again in that day...) Hermione paused, breathing deeply.

"Yes?"

"His dad's _stomach_!?"

"Yes. Anymore questions?"

"Th-"

"Great. Continuing on. Poseidon fought with his kin to destroy his evil titan god, and then came the era of the gods. They sometimes...ah, interact with the mortals and produce people called demigods. Heracles is a famous example, son of Zeus. One of Poseidon's famous demigod kids include Theseus. Poseidon created the horse...Oh, and his roman form is Neptune, which happened when the Romans took over."

"...that's it?"

"Nope. Poseidon is-"

"Shhhhh!" Ron said, making a zipping motion. "That's good."

Harry, however, sat silently, mulling over the information that had just been dumped on him. For some reason, his mind kept going back to the part about demigods. His gut lurched whenever he thought about the children of the gods and Percy.

His eye twitched. Wait...

"What about demigods again?"


	10. Chapter 10

Percy's hands were stuffed into his jean pockets, constantly twirling Riptide or playing with the fake Galleon every DA member got. The red and gold scarf around his neck repeatedly flicked his face when a particularly strong gust of wind hit him. He ducked his neck further into his robes, wondering how in the world Harry-who was soaring on a broomstick 50 feet above him-was not suffering from Hypothermia.

Ginny and Hermione were squished up against him as they both screamed themselves hoarse for their team. Percy heard a loud roar, indicating that Luna had just pressed the tip of her wand to her Lion hat. The sky up above was a pale, gloomy gray, like it had been for the whole November. The dude announcer-Lee Jordan, Percy remembered (considering how many times Professor Mcgonagall reprimanded him, Percy was sure to get it.)-squeezed in a comment here and there.

"-and it's Warrington with the Quaffle, heading for the goal. He's out of Bludger range with just the Keeper ahead..."

Yet distantly, Percy could still hear the Slytherins singing the ridiculous song. No doubt Hermione and Ginny were trying to scream loud enough for Ron to focus on them rather than the insults.

 _Weasley_ _cannot_ _save_ _a_ _thing_ ,

 _He cannot block a single ring..._

Percy watched as Ron did a messy dive, completely missing the Quaffle as it soared cleanly into the hoop. He barely heard Lee Jordan's voice amid the cheering and the booing. He clenched his hand, chanting quietly while mentally cussing out the Slytherins who sang even louder. (he avoided thinking about what his mom would say to him if she had heard his thoughts. Sorry mom! You're not grounding me from cookies, right?)

 _WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN,_

 _HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN..._

Harry had been suspiciously still for awhile as all of the commotion went on around him, and although Percy still didn't really get the rules of Quidditch, he did remember one part. So, gathering up his ability to scream as loud as he can, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "HARRY DUDE MOVE!" (he probably damaged his lungs by doing that. And his voice might've cracked. But he sounded MANLY! Yeah! MANLY!...yeah.)

Surprisingly, the red and gold dot jolted and started circling the pitch again. Percy sighed. Well, there was one thing that went well...ish.

Ron let in two more goals, and from the screams from the Gryffindors watching, Percy could tell that they were getting panicked.

 _WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN,_

 _HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN,_

 _WEASLEY WILL MAKE SURE WE WIN-_

But then Percy saw Harry dive, and he stood up along with Ginny and Hermione in anticipation. He let out a loud whistle in approval as the red and gold slowly pulled in front of the silver and green, then shot upwards in victory. Percy cheered along with the Gryffindor supporters, not caring that he still did not understand most of Quidditch. In fact, the first time he saw the pitch, he thought that it was used for a really messed up game of Basketball.

Percy started making his way down, planning to congratulate Harry and hoping that he wouldn't make him go up on the broomstick with him.

Turns out, Percy didn't even have to worry. He didn't know if that was a good thing or not, considering a bronze ball about the size of a basketball (At least he got something right about really messed up game of Basketball! Right?)-a blunger?-ricocheted into his friend. For a horrifying second, Percy forgot that not everyone was scared of an all mighty king of the gods threatening to strike them down, and therefore was fine with a six feet fall, and he lunged forward in alarm. He didn't notice Hermione's questioning gaze as he righted himself up and let out a breath in relief.

Percy's view was blocked for some moments as a group of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws bunched up in front of him, filing off in an _un_ orderly way. (which was not a word, but did he care?) As he was nearing the end, bouncing on the balls of his feet impatiently (gosh they were moving SO slow!) did he notice the oddly loud crowd of Quidditch player gathering around someone, or something, causing quite the commotion. He didn't see Harry's black mess of a hair or Ron's bright red anywhere. He glanced at Hermione and Ginny, confused. Perhaps this was a tradition or something after each Quidditch match? He didn't need to seek another look at both girl's face before concluding that there was a fight going on inside the circle.

Percy quickly pushed past the remaining people who were standing around like a bunch of ducks, watching the chaos unfold in front of them. He shoved inside the circle, spotting Harry and one of the Weasley twins-who Percy had yet to become familiar with (like Ginny)-were piled onto a...Slytherin. He spotted a flash of gelled, white-blonde hair and almost considered letting Harry, Fred or George (he was sure that was the twin's names. The other one was being held back. Percy wasn't sure if that was good or bad...) beat him up.

His conscience took over and he launched himself through some girls screaming at them to stop (like, seriously. Go stop them yourselves!) and desperately tried to pull the two boys off.

It was harder than he thought it was. Apparently, they were pretty intent on mauling Draco. His thoughts were broken off as he heard a loud, "IMPEDIMENTA!" and he went flying back, sprawled onto the ground with George-Fred?-half on top of him. He could hear snickering behind him, and lifted his head to see a chubby kid covering his mouth, his Slytherin robes a bit dirty from all the dirt the fight had caused to fly around.

Percy sent him his best glare, and the kid immediately froze in the middle of laughing.

He gently prodded FredGeorge off and made a move to stand up, but faltered when he saw the scary looking woman with spiky white hair and angry, scowling, (can eyes scowl? Hey! This reminded him of Thalia! Will this be what Thalia looks like if she aged? Never mind.) yellow eyes march up to the front of the small crowd that had gathered to watch the fight, which had dispersed when the coach had came. In one hand, she held a shiny sliver whistle and in the other, her wand. Percy distinctively remembered her as one of the teachers who circled around on a broom, watching and refereeing the match. Percy unconsciously glanced at the broom laid discarded some feet behind.

She spluttered angrily, making Harry leap up from his place on the ground and Percy would've laughed if the situation wasn't so dire.

She jabbed infuriatingly at all three boys.

"Back up to the castle, all of you and straight to your Head of House's office. Go! NOW! Unbelievable. Never seen any behavior like this." the lady screamed.

Percy obediently followed George and Harry back to the Hogwarts building. He decided not to protest against her. (What? She was a scary lady.)

 **AS YOU CAN TELL, I AM ON AN UPDATING RAMPAGE! WHOO! Actually, I had all the stuff written down already, so I guess I'm kinda cheating . . . merp. Whatever. Shh.**


	11. Author's Note

**Uh huh. Uh huh. It's me again. I didn't perish and disintegrate. Still very much dead here . . . and April Fools, peeps! Hope nobody pranked you guys too hard. :) But seriously. :)**

Professor McGonagall's face was twisted up and every few seconds her eyes twitched in anger. The red and gold scarf that was ripped off her neck when she stormed in to yell at the three boys was clutched in her hand, the piece of fabric looking like it was dangerously close to be ripped apart.

"Never in my years at Hogwarts have I seen such misbehaving actions. Three against one!" she yelled, turning her face red. Percy looked around awkwardly as Harry and George, though they were still flushed with anger, was looking at Percy curiously, obviously wondering why he wasn't protesting that he was innocent.

Percy didn't know either. He guessed that it felt selfish to back out of a situation when he knew that if he had been there when Draco insulted them or whatever he did, Percy would've probably done the same thing.

His mind wandered elsewhere, barely noticing when Professor McGonagall paused in her rant and took in a deep breath, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I hope to see no more of that disgusting behavior from either of you, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Jackson." she demanded.

Percy didn't say a word, opting to meekly nod his head in understanding. He refused to meet Harry's and George's eyes.

"Good." Professor McGonagall sighed again. "In that case, a week's worth of detention. For all of you."

George opened his mouth, as if to say something, but Professor McGonagall beat him to it. "I do not care if Mr. Malfoy insults every one of your family members, that was unacceptable manners coming from 5th years and beyond. Come to my office every day-"

The door creaked open, and a quietly (obnoxious) _Hem hem_ was heard.

A pink toad about the size of Percy's old stepfather, Gabe, came in.

Professor Umbridge's mouth curved into a sickly sweet smile, and Percy could almost swear that those were pointy teeth. (Oh Poseidon's underpants. What if she was an actual monster? Craaap Fish...)

"I couldn't help but listen to your conversation with these young boys." she said. Professor McGonagall's cheeks, if possible, flushed even more in annoyance and anger.

"What is it that you want, Dolores?" she asked. Professor Umbridge decided to up the 'I'm evil, actually' degree on her square smile.

She unabashedly plopped her pink tush on the extra seat next to Percy, and he promptly scooted away as far as he could go, almost falling off his chair and onto George in doing so.

"Well, it sounded like you needed some help-"

Professor McGonagall's hand twitched closer to her wand.

"And so I questioned myself, "'Even though she offered me no respect, I suppose this is too big of a situation for her to handle.'"

The other professor seemed to be deciding whether to blast Umbridge out or not, the blasting part slowly winning. ( _Yeah! GO KICK HER PINK BUTT! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!? GOGOGO-ahem._ )

Professor Umbridge remained blissfully oblivious. She went on, something that made Percy want to bang his head on a wall and cry.

"I do think you are too inexperienced for the Head of the House job, Minerva. These boys obviously deserve more than detention." Professor Umbridge grinned at Harry, Percy, and George. The glared back, and Umbridge discretely looked away.

She cleared her throat again.

"According to-"

"Not another one..." Harry muttered. Umbridge talked louder, giving Harry a stink eye.

"Educational Decree number twenty seven."

Ah...Percy thought. One of these. He remembered one was dedicated specifically for him. He had accidentally poured one of his messed up potions from Snape's into her cup of tea. When she had drank it, her nose turned purple and she began...um, passing gas and burping profusely. She posted the Educational Decree number twenty five-after spending two blissful weeks in the hospital-listing that if any students were found with potions outside the class, they were to be punished severely.

Percy didn't know if he was glad that the potion wasn't fatal or not. His eyes focused again as he reminded himself to listen to the conversation. Nothing was worse than not knowing what your punishment was. (Believe him, he knew...better than anybody else.)

"Ah, where was I?"

Percy resisted the urge to face-palm. Seriously, did Umbridge have short term memory loss?

"Yes, yes...your Gryffindors, Minerva, are quite bad tempered. It's almost no surprise to find Potter, Weasely, and Jackson harassing dear Mr. Draco Malfoy. For that I think that...Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasely shall be banned from Quidditch for a lifetime-"

"WHAT!?"

"-and Mr. Jackson should..." Professor Umbridge paused and turned her face to the second black hair, green eyed boy. She smiled sickly sweet. "Yes yes..." she mumbled as if she had suddenly been possessed by Gollum.

Percy sat straight up after that thought and his ADHD brain brought up several theories of Professor Umbridge _actually_ being that character in that Hobbit book that Annabeth loved so dearly...along with several other books that Percy would never read in his life.

"I remember...what was that punishment you used to give?"

Percy stared at Umbridge blankly. Was she asking him?

Fortunately, her pause in the master plan of deciding what the three boy's punishment would be gave an opening to Harry, George, and Professor Mcgonagall to finally react.

"Ban us?" Harry asked, his voice a bit distant. Percy noticed that Harry was still clutching the Snitch thingy, his hands turning white as he squeezed the poor, little, golden ball.

"This is outrageous." Professor Mcgonagall said.

"Bloody what? Look here, woman, you can't just-" George started, but ended up spluttering at the end.

Professor Umbridge glanced at her pink nails, her smile smug and satisfied. It was the reaction she wanted, Percy realized and his own hands clenched.

If it was one thing Percy didn't like, it was people who acted they were way better than others and purposefully pushed them when they knew what mattered to the other person. It made him sick just thinking that Professor Umbridge probably was not the only person-if she could be called that. He was still not sure if she was a monster in disguise-out there in the world who acted like...this.

"As I was saying, Mr. Jackson's punishment would be spending a night in the forbidden forest...alone."


	12. Chapter 12

Harry glance out of the window of the wooden hut, a smile on his face but his insides felt like lunging out of his mouth.

It was nice to see his giant of a friend-who had mysteriously left Hogwarts after the sorting-back. But his thoughts kept returning to what had been said in Professor Mcgonagall's office. He had concluded that the punishment Umbridge had given him and George were horrific, but Percy's...

Currently, the sea-green eyed wizard was locked in a room, held there until it was time for his punishment to be carried out. Then, he'll be guided to the edge of the Forest by Filch.

If Harry didn't know better, he would think that Dolores Umbridge was trying to kill Percy. And he did know better. So yes, he was afraid that his friend might be gone by the next morning. Sure, in his first year, he had gotten an unplanned trip to the forests, but without _any_ aid and or guide? Harry was sure that his scrawny, first year self would not have lived to see the next day. Harry was beginning to have an itch on whether or not Hogwart's dangers were really worth the marvel of magic. Sending children (not that he was saying Percy was a child...though he sometimes acted like it...) to deep, dark, dangerous forests should probably be illegal. _Really_ illegal, as in more illegal than illegal. If that was possible.

His only hope was that Firenze would find Percy as he did with him... or maybe that Professor Mcgonagall was smart enough to appoint someone who was pretty acquainted with the forest to secretly go in with Percy and watch over him.

With that thought, he lurched forward with the idea. He knew someone who practically lived in the forests! His sudden moment caused Fang, who's head had been lying on his lap, to bark in surprise and sulk off.d

Harry interrupted Hermione hugging Hagrid in greeting and rushed up, blubbering out words that he was sure made no sense.

Silence followed his idea, and he blushed in embarrassment (Hagrid's chuckles weren't helping it, either.) and repeated what he said slower.

"Hagrid, our friend Percy has been sent to the forbidden forests and you can help him!" Harry exclaimed. Hagrid paused and stepped out of Hermione's embrace.

"What do yeh mean?"

"Percy Jackson! Y'know, the American transfer student? Umbridge's punishing him with the Forbidden Forest! He's not gonna survive!"

Hagrid's bushy brows furrowed together. "What? Now, I don' thi-ye, 'ctually I do." Hagrid lumbered over and pulled out a seat, sitting heavily on it next to Harry.

"Tell me everything."

And so Harry did. He spilled out about the unfair punishment, guilt gnawing at his insides. If he had not let his temper take over, maybe his friend wouldn't die young.

 _No. Shut up. Stop thinking like that._

By the end of his speech, Hagrid had sat down, holding the gastly looking dragon meet to his face. (It still unnerved Harry greatly, and if he hadn't been distracted by Percy, he would've jumped on the case.) "His school could, like, bloody sue Hogwarts or something!" Ron exclaimed.

It came to Harry that he didn't really tell either of his friends about Percy's punishment. It wasn't his fault, though!

"Ye see, 'Arry...Now, this Umbridge woman..."

Harry looked up at him with what he hoped was the most convincing hopeful expression. Hagrid _had_ to try and help! Another part of him felt contrite, pushing his giant friend to go and possibly rough himself up even more by trying to save someone he barely even knew.

Before Hagrid could finish his sentence, a sharp rapping on the door broke through, and Hermione gasped loudly and dropped her mug. Fang yelped and scurried over to the door, sniffing.

"It's her!" Ron hissed urgently, and Harry hurriedly grabbed the invisibility cloak (Oh thank god for it.) and threw it over the three of them. Heart pounding, Harry watched as Hagrid swiftly hid the other two mugs (the one for Harry and Ron. Curse him for forgetting about them!) and stumble over to the wooden door.

The door creaked open, and the occupants of the room were met with a lip-stick clad, squat Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher. She pushed off Fang who was trying to lick her, yelling out several profanities.

"Why, 'ello there." Hagrid greeted merrily, though there was a touch of nervousness in his voice. Umbridge stepped across the threshold and into the hut, as if it were her own. Her lips twisted in disgust as she surveyed it, beady eyes landing on the mug shards suspiciously.

"Dolores Umbridge." she introduced.

"I-"

"High inquisitor and Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher of Hogwarts." she continued. "And I suppose you're Hagrid. Care of Magical-"

Hagrid cut in. "Yes. Ain't you in the Ministry? An' what the ruddy 'ell is High Inquisitor?"

Professor Umbridge glanced at the broken mug shards on the floor distastefully. "Ah. Precisely. I heard voices talking, when I came here." she stated matter-of-factly. Then raised an eyebrow at the broken china on the ground.

Hagrid wiped his palms on his trousers. "Well, you see. Sometimes, I talk ter Fang. And he was a bit grumpy, and so, ye see, he knocked over a mug."

"You talk to Fang." it didn't take a genius to know that Umbridge was very skeptical of the situation. "Clever excuse."

Hagrid made a small noise of protestation, but Umbridge plowed on. "What about the set of footprints leading here?"

Hermione did a small intake of breath, and Harry squeezed his eyes shut in horror. Luckily, Umbridge didn't seem to hear, too intently staring at Hagrid. And even if she did, Harry was surprised his loud, pounding heart didn't locate her to he and his friends yet. Her left, pudgy hand twisted the ugly, old-fashioned rings on her right hand almost predator-like.

"I...er." Hagrid tugged on his mangled beard, smearing dragon blood on it. "Just, y'know, walked back to me home a few moments ago." he stuttered.

Umbridge sneered. "I assume you got that injury from walking back from your...vacation?"

Hagrid seemed to be wracking his mind for something. "Ah. Well, Dumbledore, such a nice man, lemme have a break. Y'know, breath of fresh air. In...France. Tripped and fell on a sharp stone there."

"Really?" Umbridge asked, now pacing around the house, peering under every nook and cranny. Once, she came about three inches away from Hermione, Ron, and Harry. All of them held in their breaths and shrank in even closer to each other, trying to make themselves as small as possible.

"Well, Hagrid, you see, as High Inquisitor, it is my duty to inspect the teacher's behaviors. And, I am sorry to say," she said sweetly, not sounding very sorry at all, "That you'll be...in the most polite way, your behavior is a little questionable. So I'll be putting you on house arrest until classes start again."

This time, all three of them sucked in a breath angrily, but thankfully Fang's panting and slobbering masked their noise.

"Ta ta. I'll be seeing you soon, Hagrid." Umbridge said. The words would've been sweet if it hadn't been said in such a 'I'll-be-watching-you.' way. The pink professor exited the house, door shutting closed after her.

For a few moments, the only sounds of anything alive in the hut was Fang padding around and making random dog noises. Then the trio threw off their covering and all started talking at once.

"House arrest! The nerve of the-"

"That lady, she-"

"Hagrid, what's gonna happ-"

"'Ey! You kids don' worry. It's none o' your business." Hagrid said kindly, but his grip on the steak tightened, and he adjusted the position of it over his face with twitchy movements. "She can' fire me from me job." he said, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

Harry then came to a rather worrying conclusion. "So that means that you can't head out after Percy..." he said. Hermione and Ron seemed to have both came to the same windup, and they all looked at Hagrid as if he would be the on coming up with a brilliant idea. Hagrid looked even more stressed, which made Harry berate himself and struggle to come up with an apology.

"Your friend...Percy, 'ere...don' worry." Hagrid repeated like a broken record. "Hogwarts is a safe place. Dumbledore will never allow that Umbridge woman ter...der that." he finished lamely.

This, however, did not relieve Harry as Hagrid intended it to do, for Dumbledore was away for a while, meeting who knew what. If only somebody will just...

Suddenly, Harry's face steeled. If no teacher will help his friend, he'll have to take matter into his own hand. He purposefully snatched up his Invisibility cloak and then stared at his friends, willing them to get his message.

But his plan was foiled when Hagrid caught up to what he was up to before either Hermione nor Ron could both turn and look at him.

"No, 'Arry. You mustn't. "

Harry tried to school his expression to one as innocent as possible, even as he was internally cursing himself for being none too discrete. "Do what, Hagrid?"

Now Hermione and Ron were looking at him with bemused facades etched into their faces. But what great timing was that, eh? (Harry had to resist smacking his forehead into the wooden table.)

"I won' 'ave you gettin inter even more trouble. If I see yer even _attempt_ ter enter that forest, I will drag you back to Mcgonagall."

Harry scowled, searching Hagrid's face for any sign of joking. He wasn't. That made Harry even angrier.

"Hagrid! You don't expect Percy to survive a whole NIGHT in the FORBIDDEN FOREST, do you!? He'll die or get seriously injured! He's a STUDENT!" He shouted, ignoring the panicked looks he was getting from Ron and Hermione. Ron was making rapid hand motions for him to quiet down. Fang whimpered at the fight beginning to brew.

He had faced Voldemort _four_ times in his life, and had gotten through all of them. Percy...he was _inexperienced_. His magic was, in true honesty, as shoddy as a first years! How was Percy supposed to protect himself with such a weak stunning and shield charm!?

Hagrid growled and removed the dragon meat from his face, revealing the bruised and bloody side of his face. Harry winced unintentionally, and his shame increased ten-fold as Hagrid started lecturing him. He was already hurt. And wasn't his temper the thing that had gotten Percy into this situation in the first place?

Harry looked down, and apologized, but his mind was already made up. So he sat down patiently through Hagrid's tale about his trip to the giants, strategizing on how to get to Percy.

But when they exited Hagrid's home, Harry could still see Hagrid's huge face peering out of the hut's window, eyes focused intently at the area around the Forbidden Forest. Sadly, Harry had no doubt that if Hagrid even saw any small signs that a person was heading there, he would not hesitate to burst out and drag that said person kicking and screaming back to Hogwarts.

"Wait." Harry told his friends. Ron and Hermione both stopped. Hagrid couldn't keep on look-out for the whole night, right? When he gets distracted, Harry'll try to make a break for it. Percy was probably already in the forest by now! Who knows how much danger that dude will attract? (seriously, he even managed to explode a simple potion and destroy a part of the Potions room. It was easily fixed, but that didn't stop Snape from hating Percy almost as much as Harry.)

But it was well past midnight, and Harry could still see the silhouette of Hagrid. Ron was complaining loudly about being tired, and Hermione was scolding Harry, all the while sounding incredibly worried.

When his friends finally managed to drag Harry back to the dorm, he laid there wide-eyed and awake. He prayed too all things good in the world that Professor Mcgonagall had a plan to get Percy out as soon as possible.

Harry didn't get much sleep that night.

 **You guys, this is gonna be super anti-climatic.**


	13. Chapter 13

Percy swore in Greek for the hundredth time in that evening as he tripped over another mysterious, bulging tree root. Seriously, it seemed like the forest was out to get him. He had already fell into thirty branches, tripped over fifty tree roots, and stabbed himself on twenty five leaves. _Leaves_! How in the world did he stab himself with _leaves_!?

He didn't know what he did to the dryads in this area, but it must've been bad. Except he didn't do anything! At first, Percy thought that the Forbidden Forest was kind of like the forest in Camp Half-Blood. Truly, compared to the name, the Forbidden Forest really didn't live up to its standards yet. Sure, it had seemed all gloomy and creepy and foggy, but so far, no monsters had attacked him yet and made a Percy Kabob.

But the forest at Camp Half-Blood didn't stab him with LEAVES!

It was all the Umbridge lady's fault. Percy should've known that a school called freaking Hogwarts was bound to have some wonky, monster-like professors.

"OH THE GODS OF IMMORTALS!" he yelped as a branch prodded into his side. Percy angrily wrenched out Riptide from his pockets and hacked at the branch. "Take that, you imbecile!" he imitated Thalia and her group of Hunters whenever a boy was to ever take their food. (Not smart. He learned that the hard way.)

Satisfied at his job, Percy kept Riptide out for the rest of the walk. The soft, bronze glow helped guide him through the mass of trees and roots and random other plants.

It wasn't until his second verse of "It's a small world" that something actually happened. And it wasn't until he finished it did he realize how unnaturally quiet the forest was. And so when he did notice, Percy cursed again in Greek and glanced around wearily. He tightened his grip on his sword and slowly shifted into a fighting position.

The sifting sounds of someone, _something_ moving through the dense packed dark trees stopped, too. Percy started counting his breaths as he waited for the action.

One part of him was slightly annoyed. Even in Hogwarts, a total different place than Camp Half-Blood and his demigod life, he still had to deal with pesky monsters. Another part of him was already pumping in adrenaline, excited for a fight after being so deprived of it in Hogwarts.

He didn't need to decide which one he preferred, as a dark mass of fur erupted from the dark. For a second, Percy did a double take, almost shouting out 'Mrs. O'Leary!?" but then he noticed that yeah, it was even a hellhound.

It was almost spider-like, but had a body of a lion. Like a cross-breed. And boy, was it ugggllly.

Percy jumped aside last minute, heart reeling and head pounding as the monster landed on its face, teeth glinting. It yowled like a cat on steroids, turned, and fixed its red, spotlight-like eyes back on Percy again.

It growled, a deep rumble in the bottom of its throat.

"Um...easy there, Lion Spider thing."

Okay, so number one rule in demigodiness. When in battle, do not, repeat, do not _ever_ throw away your sword or only weapon used to fight the enemy. _Especially_ when you have no idea who or what you're up against and what will kill them.

Apparently Percy needed a rerun of that, because as the monster growled and pounced yet again, he chucked his sword like a javelin at the beast's head.

It landed with a dull thunk before dropping to the floor pathetically. For a moment, Percy and the monster had a stare off, before the monster's eyes glowed even brighter and let out a scream-like sound that nearly burst Percy's ear drums.

"On the other hand, new plan!"

And he bolted for his life, hoping beyond hope that Riptide will appear back in his pockets soon, because even if it did little harm, it would still be way more comfortable having a weapon in his hand that he could use than nothing at all.

Running for his life and getting stabbed by a hundred more leaves proved to be easier than expected. (Thanks, Demigod life.) Spurred on by the fact that he could be turned into Percy chow made it a whole lot easier. After a thirty seconds of nonstop sprinting, a light weight in his pockets told him that Riptide had yet appeared.

He considered throwing it again in his sleep-deprived state.

He didn't. (Thank god for common logic.)

And then, as he ran through the Forbidden Forest, too jumped up to pant, he stumbled across a clearing. Across from him was a reminder of his luck.

Like a hairy Sasquatch twisted up in ropes, another creature snoozed like a pile of dirt. (Which was what Percy thought it was at first.) He paused, conflicted. What should he do? Percy laid out his options. To turn around, and he could still hear the spider-lion thing not far behind, would be like trying to fight through an impenetrable wall if he didn't figure out what the spider-lion's weak spot was. To go forward would be risking the awakening of-

Op. Look at that. Too late.

The hairy Sasquatch made a sound like metal grinding against metal, and, despite the ropes secured around it, stood up, mouth opening wide and slowly in a yawn, giving Percy a nice view of teeth and the smell of rotton eggs.

His eyes widened when it turned to him, bleary eyeballs peering at him. He cleared his throat awkwardly. Maybe it was friendly?

"Erm, why hullo there. M'name's Percy. In a bit of a rush here, so if you would be kind enough and um..." he maneuvered cautiously towards the giant, tiptoeing through the twigs of wildlife on the ground. "Good giant, good hairy Sasquatch..."

The giant roared. Percy winced. "Or not."

Suddenly (Bad timing. Thanks, dude.), the lion-spider came, meowing its head off. It paused, though, as soon as it saw the giant. Percy stared wide eyed at the lion-spider, suddenly feeling bad for it. The giant looked at it and screamed (Oh no, his poor poor eardrums.) "HAGGER!" and he backhanded it away.

Percy cringed. Well, there goes one threat. He carefully tried to get out of the way, but the giant turned towards him. He sent a quick prayer to the gods. Not that they'll listen. They were probably there in their thrones, passing around popcorn and betting on what stupid move Percy would do next.

"HAGGER!" it repeated. Percy nodded like he understood it.

"Um, Hagger will be here soon. Calm down."

"GRAWP WANT HAGGER!" It shrieked. Percy desperately glanced around. Gods know how many monsters this...Grawp was waking up. He really didn't need the monsters. What he needed was a nice, long nap in New York with the comforting sense of blue cookies enamoring h-

 _Not the time, dude. Not the time._

He tuned in to the situation on hand. Step one, placate Grawp. If that doesn't work, run for life. Percy nodded at his plan.

"Sorry, Hagger's not here yet. But, I'm Percy. What's your name?"

"HAAAGGGEEERRR!"

"No," he denied calmly. (Or, at least, as calmly as he could.) "That is not your name."

Grawp glared at him, and he stepped forward. Percy stepped back, decided that wasn't efficient, and took ten more back. Running seemed like a good option now. Plus, he couldn't possibly kill Grawp. If this Hagger was a friend of Grawp, he or she would most likely try to seek revenge if they were to return and see Grawp's dead body. Percy really didn't need more enemies. Not in the demigod community (look at how that turned out.), not in the wizarding community. Thinking about that, he shouldn't have given his name out like that. Oh well, what's done has been done. Gosh, Annabeth was going to kill him.

"PERCY!" it growled. Percy gaped at it in surprise. Okay. That wasn't a bit freaky at all. He was so used to monsters calling him Perseus that Grawp suddenly bellowing out "Percy" was like Annabeth calling him "Honey" when she held a dagger to his throat for stealing her blueprints again.

"Um, that's goo-"

"WHERE HAGGGGEERR!?"

"He'll come soon." Percy soothed. The giant did not seem soothed, repeating the name again. "Don't worr-"

"HAGGER!"

"You know what, why am I doing this?" It was pretty obvious that Grawp could not move to long distances. But...he had to take Grawp's eyes off of him first.

He took out Riptide and chucked it in the opposite direction and yelled, "LOOOOK!", jabbing his finger at the arcing, glowing weapon. (Great. This was the second time in which he completely disregarded the Throw-weapon-equals-bad rule in one night. He had got to work on that.) Surprisingly, it did create the distraction that was needed, and Grawp turned his head in confusion.

Percy ran for it, still a bit breathless from the last escape from the lion-spider thing, but nevertheless praying that Grawp had killed it with the backhand. Thinking about that...

He didn't get far before he slammed into something else.

He let out a string of colorful curses. Gosh, why is everything coming at him at once? What the freaking Hades helm? Percy looked up to a...centaur.

He almost sighed in relief, but then reminded himself of the crazy centaurs in the Giant War...and the Party Ponies, who were somehow scarier than the crazy centaurs in the Giant War.

Percy scrambled up, reaching in his pocket for Riptide again. He held the pen out as the centaur glared at him with penetrating eyes.

"Who dares to tread on our territory?" he asked, brown hair sleeked back into a ponytail and bow pointed straight at Percy, who uncapped Riptide and held it out in front of him threateningly.

"Look, I'm not looking for trouble. It's the stupid Umbridge woman. If you don't mind, I'll just-"

But the centaur wasn't paying attention to him. He was ogling at Riptide, shocked. "Is that...I haven't seen metal like that..." awe gone, the centaur swung his head back at Percy, studying him. He reared back.

Percy stood, confused, still tense and waiting for an attack. The centaur shook its mane.

"You don't know my old cousin, Chiron?" he asked. Percy paused and nodded gingerly. If the centaur knew Chiron, could it possibly mean that they were friendly?

The centaur sneered, features twisting into an ugly expression. "That traitor." he growled.

Or not.

Percy, thinking fast, let out a PFFT sound. "That old goat?" he asked, slightly apologizing to Grover. "I agree. Such a traitor." he silently apologized to Chiron.

The centaur regarded him, head tilted up and brows furrowed. "But...you are a demigod."

Percy nodded. "Oh yeah. Never liked that horse...not that all centaurs are bad, nope." he gestured to the centaur with his sword, then capped it, slipping it back into his pocket. If he was going to get this to work, better to not have a weapon in sight. "Like you. Like, great hair, dude."

At first, he seemed perplexed, then smug. "I do have great hair, don't I?"

"Yeah. I've always wanted hair just like that." Percy said, faking a look of admiration. The centaur tossed his head, and Percy avoided snickering. This was a dire situation. No laughing.

"Ah, my mom always told me that." he said importantly.

"And she was right." Percy complimented. Then, "See, I was seeking someone here with advice on my conditioning. I think his name was...umm..." he looked at the centaur expectantly, hoping he would take the bait.

"Tyran?" he asked. Crossing his fingers, Percy nodded eagerly. "Yeah. I think so. Is that you?"

Tyran the centaur nodded, proud. "You've come to the right one, young one."

And that was how Percy spent the rest of his time in the Forbidden Forest, conversing with Tyran. At the end, he found it quite enjoyable. (Thankfully they didn't talk about hair for long.) There came a time when another monster came, this, thankfully that Percy knew. He had easily slained it with Tyran's 'help', and at the end, the centaur came to think of Percy as a friend. Percy didn't know if he should be honored by it.

He soon left, saying good bye and promising to follow Tyran's tips on hair.

Percy shuddered as he walked away, careful not to trace himself back to Grawp.

 **Yeah. Anti-climatic. Don't say I didn't waarrn poo. HAHAHA. YOU THOUGHT I WAS GONNA SAY "you", RIGHT!? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah I'm going crazy. Don't mind. Don't mind. (Go, go Datekou!)**


	14. Chapter 14

Harry didn't get the mystery that was Percy Jackson.

When he had walked out of the forest like he had just returned from a stroll, Harry had been glad, sure, that Professor Mcgonagall had found him some help. The astounded look from Umbridge was enough to put him in a happy mood for the whole entire day.

He hadn't pushed Percy on how he did it, but at Ron's one question of, "How'd you do it, mate?", instead of answering with a flippant, "Oh, I had help.", Percy had muttered something about hair and Hagger and Grawp.

None of them computed in Harry's brain.

Contrary to belief, he was in no way nosy. He had allowed Percy some space, but the dude didn't seem even one bit traumatized. Or, at least, not in a traumatized way that included tales of giant spiders or centaurs. He had kept his mouth shut, and when Hermione had fawned over him in worry, he had responded in his usual humorous remarks.

And it left Harry wondering how Percy did not escape from his encounter with no permanent physical or mental scars. But he had looked over it, trying to explain it off on his own. After all, if Harry was in Percy's situation, he would want some space, too. But it didn't seem that Percy needed space.

Maybe he was good at concealing his emotions? Maybe nothing really happened in there? Yes, that must be it.

And Harry had tried to ignore the details on how in the world Percy Jackson had survived, opting to just accept him back into the group as if everything was normal again.

It was easily almost forgotten when the Cho business happened, and Harry was left reeling after the kiss, confused and hesitant. He didn't really know what to feel about her. Sure, his fourth year was spent sneaking peeks at her in slight fancy, but...it felt wrong. Cedric had died, and this was how he was honoring his memory?

He didn't know who to confide in. It felt wrong telling Hermione or Ron it, even though they were his closest friends. Percy wasn't even in his fourth year.

Harry ended up closing his eyes and trying to forget about it. He didn't need any more worry. Right now, he would just go along with it and hope that something good happens from it. It was his first relationship, really.

One night, the Trio stayed up late, sleepily reading over the _Poseidon_ book, trying to connect two matters that didn't seem to connect.

"I dunno, they bloody well look alike." Ron squinted at the cover.

Hermione smacked him with no force. "That's not important. A lot of people look like each other."

Harry nodded along, not really comprehending what they had just said. Hermione seemed to notice, sending him a look drowned in sympathy.

"I think we're all a bit tired. Go on, get some sleep, Harry. I'll stay a bit more. I promise I'll go not long after."

"Hey! What about me?"

"Ron, you-"

Harry bid them good night and walked off, stumbling on the stairs like a drunk man. Merlin, he was _tired_. His head throbbed, his eyes drooped, and as soon as he hit the bed, he was slipping off.

Into a nightmare.

He much preferred the dream with the hallway that lead to nowhere than the red-tinted scenes of Ron's father.

He woke up, scar screaming in pain, Ron yelling worriedly. Everything was a haze, a blur from the hurt in his forehead. The smell of his vomit mixed with the putrid sense of dread, clawing up his stomach.

"Your dad," he panted, trying in vain to get their attention back on what he was saying, not what he looked like. Percy's face loomed above his, sea-green eyes almost seeming to glow in the darkness. He propped Harry up gently, like he was used to handling people that were gasping in cold sweat, trying to deny everything everyone thought about him.

"He's been bitten! He's been attacked, we have to . . . we have to . . ."

Ron looked at him uncertainly.

Harry turned to Percy, begging him to trust him, begging him to _understand_. For a moment, no Percy's eyes turned in a tumultuous swirl of emotions, none of them comprehensible to Harry. And then everything froze, and one feeling surfaced: Determination.

Percy nodded, then turned to Ron and his other dorm mates.

"Neville, go get Professor Mcgonagall Or Dumbledore."

Everybody stared at him in silence.

" _Go_!"

Neville sprinted into motion, spurred by the level of authority in Percy's voice. Ron staggered around in shock, frowning in confusion.

"Mate-"

"Harry, can you get up?" Percy asked gently, prodding him carefully.

Harry nodded weakly, placing his hands underneath him and pushing himself up.

"We're gonna meet them halfway there. If it's really as serious as you saw it as, we have no time to waste." He draped Harry's arm around his shoulders and wrapped one arm around his waist.

"Ron, c'mon."

"I-what-what in the bloody earth is happening?"

"I believe Harry had a vision."

"It might as well had been just a dream!"

" _Ron_."

Again. The one-word command. Ron almost tripped forward, eyes wide with worry and panic and fear.

They met Professor Mcgonagall halfway. Neville was sent back with a fretful look cast behind him. Percy seemed to convey something with his eyes as Neville nodded and scurried back faster than he began with.

Harry didn't dwell on it, launching into a breathless explanation as they ran all the way to Dumbledore's office.

As his hand touched the Portkey, he met Percy's eyes from the other end.(Harry felt a slight nervousness in his stomach. Dumbledore was taking Percy to Sirius's house. Taking him to the headquarters.) A snake-like desire crept into his throat, but Harry pushed it down.

 _Thank you,_ he thought. _Thank you for believing me._

And then everything twisted around him and his stomach flipped from the vertigo.

Days later after the incident, Harry, Hermione, and Ron sat around a fireplace. Hermione had a book propped up in front of her, eyebrows furrowed in obvious distraction. Ron didn't seem to feel it, with feet propped and body slumped.

Harry had carefully slid the book out of Hermione's hands, closing the ancient cover with the elaborate writing printed finely onto it.

"I don't think we should . . ."

Hermione had softened and nodded.

Harry returned _Poseidon_ to the Room of Requirements.

 **Cause I don't think they'll be _that_ sneaky. Maybe. Okay, yeah they probably would be. BUT NOT IN THIS! CAUSE DIS IS FAHNFICTION. Phanfiction. Yeah, two of my friends ship them so much.**


	15. Chapter 15

Percy snuggled into the hand-knitted sweater that Mrs. Weasley had handed him. She had looked a little sad, and Percy wasn't surprised. If he had a son named Percy that ran off without a reason or thought, and suddenly another dude called Percy turned up, he would've probably bawled his eyes out at the reminder of what he had lost.

He thanked her profusely and offered her a carton of his mother's freshly baked blue cookies, almost the same color as the sweater handed to him.

Percy had made probably a dozen Iris messages that morning. He felt a teeny bit homesick. Last year, he had spent his Christmas at Camp Half-Blood, screaming Christmas songs and inside jokes, laughing so hard that tears ran down their cheeks.

The Demigods had had an epic snow ball fight. (He and Annabeth had won. So what if he was a little smug on it.)

The seven, Grover, Tyson, and Nico had grouped at his apartment later, and they had all stuffed themselves with so many sweets that his mother had promptly fainted from the result. Advice: Do not hand a group of ADHD kids sugar. Otherwise, you may face certain death from frustration.

And...maybe this Christmas wasn't going to go the same as his last one. But Percy found himself not as disappointed as he thought he would be. After all, he was spending it with another family. And yes, the family might be a completely different species than his own. Nevertheless, they were still his friends, and Percy wouldn't trade them for the world.

Percy grinned as the twins chased each other around, red hair glaringly bright. Anyways, some of them reminded him of others.

He guessed it was a good thing that came out of Hecate's mission. Speaking about Hecate, she had visited him last night and had bombarded his brain on even more tips on casting spells and brewing potions.

Percy honestly did not get how he had not died in his sleep. Between Harry's DADA lessons and Hecate's surprise attacks, his brain was going into overload.

 _"Your magic is not stable," Hecate told him, hands crossed in front of her regally. "That is to be expected. Demigods are not supposed to handle wands. However, I have blessed you, and blessings have to work both ways. Perseus, you need to accept the magic. I expect improvement in your magic skills. It would be a great asset to you."_

It definitely wasn't pressuring at all. Hecate did not even wish him a Merry Christmas afterwards. Gods these days. Didn't properly celebrate muggle holidays.

Percy crinkled his nose at his thoughts. Oh dear. Maybe the British wizards were impacting him more than he thought. Had he developed an accent yet?

Percy pictured Ron's voice coming out of him as he greeted his American friends. He pushed the thought away. That was almost scarring. Plus, he remembered Annabeth telling him once that usually people who adopt an accent till age four kept that accent.

"HEADS UP!" one of the twins shouted, and Percy barely had time to duck down before a projectile zoomed over his head at a speed fast enough to decapitate someone.

"Sorry 'bout that, Perce." Fred grinned at him, freckles standing out against his cheek. Or maybe it was George. He still had trouble distinguishing between the two of them, but he was _pretty_ sure it was Fred.

His guess was usually correct. Kind of. Not really.

He managed a smile back before they scrambled away, yelling and swearing as they tried to catch the projectile again. Across from him, Percy caught sight of Sirius. The man's expression was blank, a silent bliss. His dark hair fell in a scraggly mess around his face.

Percy supposed that Sirius used to be handsome, and it still peeked out. But twelve years of imprisonment tends to cut people down. He felt a sting of pity for the man. Did all wizards have tragic backstories? If so, that was another reason why Percy did not fit in.

Well, unless the gods of tragic backstories counted Gabe. Which he supposed they should. Percy frowned and shoved the thought away. Chirstmas was not the time for reminiscing about bad memories.

Thinking about Sirius led him to Harry (lord knows that man would do anything to protect that boy). Despite the situation with the snake that had happened, Percy found Harry handling it quite well . . . if well meant not having a life-crisis, curled up into a ball, and murmuring nonsense, then yes. And the small blow-up he had had was easily pacified.

Ish.

He stood up and stretched, joints popping, and made his way to the kitchen where the smell of food awaited him. He beamed.

Food. Yes, food was good. Unfortunately, food was also not done. And when he sneakily crept a hand across to take a bite of it, Mrs. Weasley was there to smack his hand away. He pouted and sulked away, which she ruffled his hair fondly for. Ginny laughed at him from the sidelines. (She and Percy had bonded over their love for his mother's cookies . . . actually thinking about it, perhaps his mother's cookies had bonded everyone.)

"It's not yet dinner, P-Percy, dear."

His heart hurt a bit at her stumble, and he managed a smile back, making sure not to bother her again. So, with nothing to do, he wondered the house aimlessly, going up the creaky stairs and down it, carefully avoiding the house elf (Kreacher? He accidentally stumbled over it, apologized, and was met with a face full of insults), and staring at the portrait that screamed. He was pretty sure it was Sirius's mother.

She sounded an awful lot like many of the gods he had the pleasure of meeting. And some monsters. And Grawp. Yeah, definitely Grawp. All screechy and all that other random things he could not make sense of.

He wondered how Grawp was faring. From the brief encounter with the giant, Grawp seemed fairly better than most other giants he had met. And he was obviously being trained or kept by somebody. Percy just hoped that somebody knew what they were getting into.

Pondering purposelessly, he opened several doors. Most of them were creepily abandoned. (In hindsight, perhaps opening random doors was not a smart thing to do. But hey, he was bored! And judging by the continuous clink of the pots and pans, and the dim lighting outside, Christmas dinner was not ready.)

One room opened up to a room, empty save for a wall design. Eyebrows shooting up curiously, Percy shuffled in, making sure to leave the door open. He stared up at the huge tree, the hundreds of faces, most twisted into a confident smirk.

He tilted his head. The smirk seemed . . . familiar, somehow. Like something he had seen, but only rarely. His gaze wandered around, frowning at the marks, scorched upon a persons' face. He wondered . . .

His hand drifted to one, almost touching-

"I see you've found the "most ancient and noble house's" prized family tree, hm."

Percy jumped away, jerking his hand back, fingertips touching the cool material of Riptide in a split second. He squinted at the shadow in the doorway. The figure moved, and Sirius Black appeared.

Forcing himself to relax, Percy managed an uncomfortable smile, awkwardly glancing at the wooden handle of his wand. He stuffed his other hand in his other pocket, realized it might look like he was hiding something, shook both his hands out, took out his wand, realized it might look hostile, clumsily put it back in his pocket, and rubbed his neck.

"Ah, um, yeah. That is . . . yeah." Percy cleared his throat and brushed a hand through his hair. He fidgeted as Sirius made his way closer.

He paused next to Percy, staring up at the massive tree. He pointed to the burnt out face that Percy was marveling over.

"That was me."

" . . . oh." Percy shifted at the silence. "What happened?" he blurted out, then winced at his upfrontness. It seemed a touchy subject. But Sirius just shrugged apathetically.

"Got into Gryffindor. Ran away. Many things." Sirius looked at him, piercing Percy with his grey eyes, haunted to the depths. He was maybe an inch taller than Percy. Perhaps Jason's height.

"Ah." Again, he cringed at the sympathetic tone in his voice. He had met many demigods disowned by their families, simply because they could not accept their child for who they were. He doubted that Sirius Black would appreciate the pity. "Not that that's bad. I mean, it's bad. But if, you know, you thought it was good-that is, your actions were probably good-I mean, you probably thought your actions were good-not that they were bad, I think. Not that you're bad. I mean, this Order of the Phoenix thing is good, and Voldemort is bad, so-"

Percy bit down on his lip. Hard. And cursed his habit of blubbering crap when he felt awkward. Sirius simply raised an eyebrow at him, looking faintly amused.

"Perseus-"

"Percy. Perseus is a pretty bummy name."

Sirius scoffed in humor, letting out a small chuckle. "Was your mother obsessed with naming her children off of constellations, too?"

Percy flushed and shrugged. "Something like that. She's brilliant, though. Makes the best cookies."

Sirius laughed again, a bark that sounded much like a dog's. Percy glanced at the family again, at the smirks. He realized why it seemed so familiar. Sirius had smiled genuinely once with Harry, then smirked once when Fred and George pulled a prank on him. "I like you, Jackson."

"Er, well. Thank you? Not often I hear that." Percy's lips twitched up, though. He still felt pretty odd with Sirius, but was slowly warming up. After all, the man didn't scold him for trespassing into private rooms or anything. Which was always a good thing. Maybe.

Sirius smiled again, then patted him on the back. His smile faded slowly, until he was once again serious. "I know from Dumbledore that you're . . ."

Percy twitched in surprise. A . . . demigod? If Dumbledore had told Sirius, had he also told all of the other Order members?

"Protecting Harry. He said you are quite powerful." Sirius cocked an eyebrow. Percy, feeling quite modest, nodded slightly. Ah. So Dumbledore was still keeping the demigod thing to himself. Percy supposed that was for the best.

"Not so much with a wand. But other things . . . yeah. I guess."

"I guess?"

"Yes. I-yes. I mean, yes. I-yeah." Even though he had spent the last five years of his life speaking with and participating in godly things, he had never perfected serious situations.

Sirius sighed. "I know that you've already been appointed the job, and I hope that you're skills are not exaggerated." he stared sternly at Percy, who nodded back. Seeming satisfied, Sirius sighed and turned back to look up at the family tree. "I need to know if Harry's ever in trouble. I don't care whether you think it's totally in your control or not. _Contact_ me. I'm not going to fail Ja-anybody. I'm not going to fail anybody again." A bitter laugh. "Dumbledore wants me to stay here with nothing to do."

Sirius glanced at Percy with a crazed look in his eyes. "I can't. You don't understand how hard it is to just _stay_ here, knowing there are a thousand things to be done, knowing that Harry's in danger wherever he is, targeted with a bounty on his head by Voldemort. And I can't do anything. I need you to promise me that you would do everything in your power to protect him. I need you to promise me that you would contact me . . . please."

The man looked desperate, all carefree joy gone. And Percy nodded.

"I promise," he whispered, thinking of another place, another time, when he had said the same thing.

And Percy meant it. Both times.

 **Yeeahh. Again, I apologize for any grammar mistakes. Woah. That sounded professional. AM I FINALLY GROWING UP!? Nah. Who am I kidding. Also, I'm probably gonna be updating every day until the end BECAUSE I'M MORE THAN HALFWAY DONE WITH THIS THING so yeah. :D Sorry if it's a bit overwhelming.**


	16. Chapter 16

Percy wiggled his eyebrows at Harry as he approached the pretty Ravenclaw girl, winking. Harry flushed so hot, it felt as if his cheeks were going to burn straight off. He had wanted to talk to her alone, but apparently, Percy had different ideas.

He turned back to Cho, clearing his throat profusely. "Er . . . so . . ."

Percy elbowed him. Hard. Harry winced and glared at him. He grinned back, whistling in subtlety. Cho smiled in amusement, and Harry found that he was not the only one with cheeks as red as a mistletoe.

Something twinged giddily inside him.

"Hullo, Harry," she said, smoothing her shirt down nervously. Percy made a small noise. ("Oh my gosh. You guys are so weird.") "And Percy. How are you?"

"Good! Great! Harry needs to tell you something!" Percy blurted out, jumping up and down. Harry closed his eyes and sighed in annoyance. What in the bloody beard did Percy think he was doing, exactly? With how he was acting, Harry wouldn't be surprised if Percy suddenly turned into a match-making cupid thing.

One part of him was slightly thankful, though, that the enigmatic wizard managed to still be super hyper even with all of the bad that had been dumped on them. In fact, a certain prank on an atrocious pink toad had been performed quite beautifully just a few days ago, and Harry had a sneaking suspicion that it had not been the Weasley twins.

(When asked, Percy had merely muttered something about two siblings. Tr-something and Conner?)

After Christmas break, Percy improved in magic tenfold. His Transfiguration stopped looking like scary mutants, and his charm work and potions didn't explode quite as much. Harry did not know what had occurred, but he was really proud of his friend. Honestly, going from exploding water fountains to small showers was a huge step.

A tincture of him squinted in qualm, but he was tenacious in the abandoned violation against Percy. He was his friend, and that was that.

Cho looked at him again, curiosity in her eyes. Harry snapped back to reality. (Or, he hoped it was reality. Really really hoped. Like, really. Really. Reeeaaalllyy.)

Dang it. And now he couldn't stall any longer without seeming like he was avoiding something completely.

"Er, well, I was wondering if you would like to go to Hogsmeade with me . . . ?" he trailed off uncertainly. Cho beamed at him, and Harry's stomach flipped.

"Oooh! Yes, of course!"

Harry beamed back. "Really!? I mean, yeah. Alright. That's settled, then!"

Percy pestered him the whole way to lunch, and then proceeded to grace Hermione and Ron with the news. Harry smacked him in the arm, even though he himself was bursting with the good news. He didn't even tell Percy off for stealing his toast again. (Goodness, that boy did not know how to spread his own marmalade, did he?)

However, even as he breezed through the rest of his classes, the ominous pressing of his Occlumency lessons with Snape also seemed to compress down on him. Soon, the ticking of the clock nearing six drowned out any glow of joy from Cho's acceptance.

Just thinking about the practice made his scar twing with a phantom pang. Needless to say, after the first lesson, Harry really was not looking forward to the next. Or ever, really.

He found himself staring at the time and dreading the ticks bringing it closer and closer to his doom. Next to him, Percy halted in his incessant incantations and shot him a sympathetic look. "S'okay, Harhar," he whispered as if it were some kind of secret. Harry wrinkled his nose at the nickname. "Everything will be okay. Maybe. I hope."

He watched as Percy's marble smoothed into a cockroach and scampered off the table at the speed of light, and then marveled slightly at Percy's reflexes.

"You know, you should really consider joining Quidditch," Harry offered, not for the first time. He ignored the twisting in his stomach as the subject of his ban sucker-punched him. Percy glanced out the window, at the darkening sky and the waving trees, before shuddering a bit.

"Nah. My stay's pretty temporary. Besides, the sky doesn't like me." he stared at Harry seriously, sea-green eyes expressing nothing but complete candor, before turning back to his work.

Temporary.

The word seemed to hang in the air for a moment as Harry remembered exactly why and how Percy was here. A transfer student of a sort. Not meant to stay.

Harry bit his lip and glanced at his own object, the marble a pastel green that seemed to mock him.

 _It's fluid, really. Like water or something._

 _Okay. Okay, MindPercy._

"When asked what had happened on the night of the notorious Triwizard Tournament . . . " Luna's lulling voice drifted into Harry's ears like a lullaby, a reminder that, yes, a group of fifteen year olds managed to produce a story of mass production, displayed in easily the most questionable wizarding magazines ever. It was an achievement Harry found himself grinning over (further boosted by Umbridge's face when he had chucked it at her. Merlin, he wished he had a camera. Or Colin Creevey.)

Percy laid next to the Ravenclaw girl, twirling his wand around with one hand and catching blueberries in his mouth with another. Harry didn't know when Luna started hanging out with them, but he supposed it started after Percy and she formed an unusual friendship.

Ron, who sat across from him, slung an arm around Ginny (who promptly shoved it off), and grinned with a mouth full of food at Hermione (who promptly turned away). "Everybody's hearing about it. Harry, they'll know, and I bloody bet that a significant amount of them are gonna believe you."

"Thanks, Ron," Harry said, genuinely glad for their support. ". . . also, there's chicken stuck in your teeth."

For the first time in what seemed like forever, Harry was in ebullient. The snatches of paper stashed in books, stuffed in pockets, handed like gamble around the school was enough to keep him in his joyful mood.

Ron's words repeated in his head like a broken record.

Believe you. Believe you. Believe you.

Harry needed that. He had a sense that something was coming, had been coming for a while now; something connecting to the dream that he had been experiencing for the past couple of months, a plight that nagged at him like a frequent tug on his mind.

Perhaps it was closer than he (anybody, really, if the situation turned in his favor) realized. And if it was, then the entire magic community was going to have to be prepared.

Percy yelped as he dropped his wand into his chicken noodle soup, making a face as he fished the piece of wood out.

"Do you think that added flavor?" he asked Luna.

The girl shrugged as if the question was completely logical.

Harry stared. Maybe that was why they got along . . . ?

 **WHOO! Here's another crappy chapter. Again, not edited, so I apologize for any weird thingymajiggers. And also, I honestly can't believe people are still reading this. But . . . thanks? Seriously, this story has dragged on for so long, and I've been so lazy, that, wow, you readers must have a ton of patience waiting for terrible grammar chapter things. And now I'm just trying to catch up on updating on fanfiction so . . .**


	17. Chapter 17

Percy was panicking, and his heart felt as if was going to explode in his chest in a matter of minutes.

 _What a pathetic death. Percy Jackson, defeater of countless monsters and approacher of Death, dies because an old, wise wizard left Hogwarts and now his identity is pretty much screwed._

The first thing that he had done upon receiving the news of Dumbledore's exit was contact Annabeth. And rant. And babble. And pound his chest in slight alarm.

As far as he knew, Dumbledore was the only one who understood his situation. And created great cover stories. And served as a pacifying presence, even though Percy never really interacted with him a lot.

And now he was gone.

Somewhere.

And the crap of a teacher, Umbridge, was in his place.

Umbridge.

 _Umbridge_.

Annabeth had offered her condolence, and then proceeded to threaten him. Profusely. In the end, the conversation was a little too blunt and a little too unhelpful.

He practically walked through the halls of Hogwarts like a zombie, and barely registered where his feet was taking him. More than once, he had pounded his head in distress completely out of the blue and had gotten more weird looks than he could care to count.

"Harry," he whispered. "Harry, we're screwed."

Wait. He was sent here to protect the boy. Not to lower his confidence.

Hastily, he blurted, "Nope. Just kidding. We're gonna be fine. Fine! When's the next Deeeeeeal! Deal. Yeah. Deal. For . . . your date. Deal. With Cho. About getting her flowers." He squirmed in his seat at his shoddy cover-up, ignoring the witch who walked past with a raised eyebrow and Harry's less than amused expression.

"That was-"

"I know. Sorry. Are . . . are we still doing it?" he mumbled, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. Harry, if plausible, looked even more stressed, and Percy mentally cursed at himself. He knew how pressured he must feel at the moment, and it kind of made him feel guilty for whining over something as trifle as his identity.

Seriously. Hecate might hate him forever for blasting the whole gods ordeal to wizards and witches and scary owls, but wasn't putting Harry precedence over everything else most salient? And even if that hadn't been the motive of the quest, which Percy was pretty sure it had been, it was going to be now, screw prophecies and whatnot.

"I dunno," Harry whispered back, equally quiet.

Percy glanced behind him at Hermione, who was curled in the couch with a humongous book, eyes shifting across the same line over and over again. Ron, who was sprawled over the couch like some kind of overgrown caterpillar, clenched and unclenched his fists, creases between his eyebrows.

And Percy understood. He had been in their situation before. Definitely not the same, but similar.

He understood that kind of stress and the load that seemed to press down like some kind of portable sky. (That thought brought up scarring images of Atlas promoting the sky like some kind of shampoo commercial.)

Right now, they were trying to keep their minds off of it. Or, forcing themselves to. Percy didn't think it was healthy with how much they were discussing what they were to do and all that, and he supposed he was being a complete hypocrite asking for more information when he had been the one to shush all of them.

But, in his defense, their discourse was not helping. Anyone. At all. And he was distracted easily, and sitting through a period doing nothing ticked at his nerves like some pocket god that kept on whispering wrong advice into his ear.

So, gathering all the confidence and courage in his body, Percy announced, quite simply, "Harry." he stared at said boy with all the seriousness in the world. "I believe in you." (and then felt really cheesy afterwards.)

Harry stared at him, eyebrows furrowed in frustration. "Thanks, Percy. I appreciate it, but maybe not now? The stupid Inquisitorial Squad is squawking all over the place, stupid Umbridge's dictating the school, stupid Snape hates me even more-I dunno if I should be happy about the canceled Occlumency, but Hermione's glaring almost makes it worse-"

"Harry, I'm just trying to-"

"Hagrid's acting odd, Cho's not talking to me, and my dad was-" he paused then, a hitch in his voice, and although Percy's never seen Harry cry before, he seemed to be very close to it now.

There was silence for awhile, nothing but Hermione's shifting of the pages and the crackling of the fire. A very uncomfortable pause tugged at the occupants, and Percy slowly uncrossed his legs, shaking them out, not knowing what to say. He settles for a quiet 'oh', sympathizing with Harry more than he would know.

Ron glances at his friend, then at Percy, mouth half-opened and eyes wide with alarm. Percy clears his throat.

"Well, that was a load of negativity you just dumped on us."

Harry's eyes flare, like the color the fire turned with the Floo powder. "I-"

"I get it, Harry. You're stressed. I think we're all a bit stressed. But how was your talk with Sirius?"

The boy gritted his teeth, expression falling to something unidentifiable. Then, he releases a breath, stiff shoulders relaxing. "Fine. It was fine. He cleared something up for me."

Percy smiled. "Good. That's good." he stretched out then, popping his joints, putting on an air of nonchalant relaxation. He was good at this, he remarked. Good at putting on the face that the crowd wanted to see. "Has anyone heard about Firenze? He was a good teacher. I would hate to see him gone."

This time, Hermione spoke up, nose scrunched up. "Honestly, he would find anything better than teaching Divination. But I think Umbridge's too scared to fire him." her last sentence was spoken with almost a triumphant crow.

Harry let out a weak laugh, but to Percy, it was good enough. He cared about the boy as much as he cared about his friends at Camp.

And speaking about Camp . . .

Percy smirked suddenly, feeling a spark of excitement. "If you would excuse me." he cackled, crawling away from the group. "I have something to do."

Before he exited, he heard Ron mutter, "He has that look again" and for a resounding slap to sound (it sounded much like the contact a book made with Ron's head. Specifically Ron's.)

For a while, Percy trudged the school, running his hand along the walls and skirting around less-than-welcomed people (he almost had a collision with Draco, thank gods he didn't), until he finally found his targets, crouched behind a statue.

"Hey,"

The two red-heads jumped, then turned with twin looks of innocence.

"Why, hello, better Percy."

"What brings you here to our lovely presences?"

And he smiled evilly. "I think you'll like what I have planned," he told Fred and George.

 **MRAAHHH YOU KNOW THOSE FANARTS THAT JUST MAKE YOUR HEART THROW UP!?**


	18. Chapter 18

Harry didn't know what to do. His arms shook, his whole body shook. The thrill of the Weasley twin's pranks (and Harry suspected the huge water display was all Percy. The dude had some kind of affinity with water.) and their grand departure might as well had happened another lifetime ago.

He knew his friends were trying their best to cheer him up, and it sorta felt wrong to be washing away all of their hard work, but Harry found himself back to square one. Except now, it felt as if he were standing in square -1000565.

Crashing into several students and throwing careless apologies behind him, Harry struggled up the marble staircases, and then more staircases, and then even more, hands gripping the space in front of him as if he could slowly wind his life back together again if he tried hard enough.

His mind was numb. His being was numb. His dream played in his head, finally finished and twisting his stomach into gruesome knots.

"Harry! Harry!"

Almost mechanically, Harry turned, gripped onto Hermione's and Ron's arms, barely registering the worry, and pulled them away to an empty classroom.

"Woah! Mate, what's-"

"Sirius," he hissed, heart palpitating like a bass drum. It almost felt like that one day when (ONE TIME!) he had slept in later than Percy, and the cheeky green-eyed boy had used S _onorus_ and had yelled so loudly that Harry thought his eardrums were never going to heal again. "Voldemort-"

Ron and Hermione let out identical squeaks. Harry ignored them.

"-has got him. We've gotta go." he turned to march away again, grips around his best friends' wrists tight and sure. They were going to get to the Department. They were going to save Sirius. Right now.

"Wait, ow, bloody-"

Hermione yanked him back. "Harry." she looked nervous, trying to shrug his grip off. "Harry, where did you get that information from?" she winced, and Harry realized just how hard he was clutching onto them.

Immediately, he let go, muttering a swift apology, then glancing around impatiently. Ron glared and rubbed his wrists.

"You couldn't have just-"

Harry spoke over him. "My dream. I saw it in my dream."

Hermione tensed up, just as Harry expected, and her eyes narrowed, sharp and analytical. "Harry, you _have_ been practicing Occlumency, right?"

"Yes," he gritted out, an obvious lie. She seemed to detect it as her mouth twisted down, and she leaned forward as if she were going to give him a lecture but _Harry really didn't have time for this and darn it, if they weren't going to come with him, then so be it._

He pivoted, feet falling forward, arms turned away from Hermione and Ron, out of their reach, out of their petty opinions that were delaying his reach to Sirius, to-

He crashed into someone. Hard.

His glasses made a creaking sound.

His vision clouded.

And then he was getting pulled off the ground and staring into the familiar sea-green eyes and tousled black hair of his friend.

"Oh my gods, Harry, I'm so sorry, are you alright, here, I'll do that weird spell thingy, actually no, that's not a good idea, Hermione, you're here! Oh gods, I'm so so so sorry, are you okay Harry? Oh, your glasses look a bit demented, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm-Harry, are you sure you're alright? I could-"

He twisted out of Percy's grip. "I'm fine!" he snapped. For a moment, he was glad, but that moment disappeared once he noticed that it gave Hermione and Ron more time to catch up. He whipped around, and was met with the graceful swish of Hermione's wand.

His glasses shifted on his face.

He turned to go again but found himself trapped. Scowling furiously, Harry let out a strangled growl.

"Hermione, I swear-Ron, help me out here."

However, Ron wouldn't look at him, head bowed down to show his ginger mess. "Sorry, Harry, but 'mione's right."

A sharp sting of betrayal, and then a fiery ball of anger crushed into Harry's chest. "SIRIUS IS BEING TORTURED RIGHT NOW! HE'S BEING HURT, AND VOLDE-"

Hermione clamped her hand on his mouth, eyes blown wide.

Percy blinked. Then slowly opened the door, where Ginny, Luna, and Neville stood, Ginny's hand outstretched to grasp onto the doorknob. Harry stared incredulously at them. Percy laughed and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Heh. They followed me here?"

Oh yeah. That's right. They were in an isolated classroom right now. Definitely an open space where everybody knew where Harry is. "How did you get in here anyways?"

Percy laughed again. "Well, your retreat was definitely not a quiet one."

Harry flushed, then remembered why he was here in the first place. "Sirius!" he exclaimed, mentally berating himself for even letting his mind off for even a second. He turned to Percy, willing the older boy to understand. Maybe it was something about how Percy held himself, a look in his eyes, the way that he seemed to completely believe Harry the first time he had had a dream, but Harry found himself desperate for his output. "Please, we've gotta-"

"Harry," Ron butted in as Ginny, Luna, and Neville filed in, shutting the door firmly behind them. "How about we contact him first?"

Hermione looked shocked. "You actually said something intelligent for once, Ron!"

"Oh, shut it."

"Fine. Fine! And how do you propose we do this!? When Sirius's bleeding and _dead,_ that's okay because we asked him first!"

"Look, I think I got the gist, and they're right. You can't just go headfirst into this!" Ginny butted in. "We'll get through Umbridge's office. We'll guard it, and you'll do whatever it is you have to do. Alright?"

Harry's scowl was so intense that Neville cringed away. His mind was too chaotic for him to feel remorse for scaring the fidgety boy. He wanted to scream. He wanted to shake his friends until they understood, wanted to somehow share the dream he had with all of them. Instead, he spat out another 'fine', and then they were off.

 **Yup. Yuuuup. UuU. Ya see that face? It's beautiful. Does anyone actually read these? I usually just skip anything that doesn't look remotely like it's part of the actual story. Huh. That kind of makes me feel rude. (Why you gotta be so ruuuuuude. When did that song come out? It felt like it was just last year or something.) And yeah, I've got these chapters written down already. It's just a matter of posting them (which I was too perezosa to do.)**


	19. Chapter 19

It didn't surprise Percy that Umbridge caught them.

It also didn't surprise Percy that Hermione clevered her way out of there. (not a word, but whatever. It was in Percictionary . . . yeah.)

It somehow _also_ didn't surprise Percy when he encountered his own centaur friend, delayed the centaur's attack, only for it to all be wasted when Grawp came barging in swinging his fists. Despite the giant's limited vocabulary, he had a swell memory.

("When did you meet Grawp, Percy? And that . . . centaur. Who's obsessed with hair."

"Ah, well, that's a story.")

However, when Harry announced he was going, when the Thestrals wandered out with their skeletal, black bones that reminded Percy of horse-Nico (except it talked more, even if it was in Percy's head. Truthfully, it had been more intimidating when he first met Dobby the house-elf. Man, Dobby was great, but he was also a bit too high-strung.), it finally hit him hard. "He wasn't there? In Grim and Gloomy house?"

Harry glowered furiously, green eyes dark. His hair, usually messy, seemed to wave with static electricity-no, magic-now. Or Percy's brain was messing things up to make things more dramatic. It tended to do that sometimes. "No."

He shifted. He trusted Harry, really, moreso than his quest really intended for him to. But something-his instincts, his intuition, his reflexes polished from years of demigod training-itched at him, every nerve shrieking not to go.

 _Young Perseus._

Percy didn't even flinch, used to the communication now. Instead he tilted his head slightly to indicate that he heard the feminine voice belonging to the Thestral on his left. He was glad that they didn't call him lord, like so many other horses did. He supposed it was because they were probably additionally under Hades's rule or something, and it must've been pretty confusing to call both the god of the sea and god of the death 'lord'.

 _Are these wizards bothering you?_

 _No. Nothing like that._

He stared as Harry determinedly braced himself on one of the Thestrals, brows furrowed, looking so much older than a fifteen year old should. Looking so beaten up and done with everything, yet so persistent to accomplish what he needed to.

"Are you sure?" Percy asked, and the younger boy shot him a look that made him regret even posing the question.

" _Yes_ , Percy. Look, I don't have time to do this. If you're not going, then you're not going."

Now, Percy prided himself on reading people, and he spotted the spark of hope in Harry's eyes that prompted him to demolish any doubt and accept the offer with a signature smirk. But . . . the feeling was still there, twisting in his stomach.

And he couldn't.

"Harry, guys, I . . . I don't feel good about this . . . this thing."

Hermione looked at him almost pityingly, one leg swung upon her own Thestral. Percy made his way to the one supposedly designated to him, running a hand along its smooth spine. It had been a bit frightening at first, sure, but Percy found them innocuous after just a few moments.

 _Hey, what do you say?_

The horse neighed, shaking its head. _It is up to you. We do not meddle in these things._

 _But you're offering a ride right now._

 _They will fight for what they want to fight for. We are merely redeeming a favor to the young girl on your right. She has treated us kindly for many years._

Percy glanced over at Luna, whose head was held high, her long, blonde hair falling like a waterfall down her back, her gray eyes dazed and looking into the distance. He was suddenly struck with how much she reminded him of the Athena Cabin, or maybe a hero, poised on her horse.

His heart pulled at the girl's benevolence. He had been in her place before, teased and ignored, and all Percy did was grow bitter and try to shun the world. He supposed that was one reason he befriended Luna-to offer some semblance of protection against her bullies.

Percy sighed, wishing Annabeth was with him. Usually he charged in . . . but if that option was taken away, he had to actually use his brain. "Can we just wait for a moment? I just need to-"

"Percy, you're either going or not," Harry snapped, guarded. "Are you?"

"Harry, this is ridiculous! Did you search the entire house? Is your information valid?"

Harry's face fell for a moment, then steeled up. "Yes. And you're wasting my time right now."

Okay. That stung. Hurt, even. _Wasting his time._ Percy tried to brush it off, but the statement, said with brutal honesty, rung in his head like a nightmare brought up again. Poseidon, his friends, his mom, Gabe, all sneering and turning away. _Just a waste of time._

Harry broke eye contact, uncomfortable, hand ghosting at the scar on his forehead, then pushed off. After a few seconds, the others followed him. Percy stared blankly after them, one hand still on his Thestral, trying to shake off the shock.

"Wait, Harry! Just-" Percy growled in annoyance, making a move as if to hop onto the Thestral, then groaned and covered his face. "No, no, no. This is wrong this is . . . Sirius." Percy gasped, not paying attention to the accidental pun.

Continuing his movements, he swung on top of the Thestral in one fluid movement. "Go. Fast, please."

 _As you wish._ The voice echoed in his mind, and then they were off, the world blurring into specks of green and gold and blue, shooting across Hogwart's ground like they were on a flying bullet train. Percy repeated the mantra in his head: _Grimmauld 12. Grimmauld 12. Grimmauld 12._

He knew Harry thought that the dream was the absolute, but Percy had had ones that were just as convoluted as a prophecy from the Oracle. Plus, maybe Harry was so entrenched in the idea that Sirius was in trouble that he couldn't keep an open mind, limiting his search for a confirmation rather an answer.

And if that was true, then Harry was heading to a very dangerous point.

 _YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT HIM, TURN AROUND, YOU IDIOT! FOLLOW THEM! FOLLOW THEM!_

Percy squeezed his eyes shut, body tense, resisting the urge. He had to make sure, first. And he trusted Harry to keep himself and his friends safe for the time being. And if Harry truly was in a ditch, then Percy would bring backups, and then backups for those backups.

He was trying to keep Harry safe.

He was _going_ to keep Harry safe, Hecate's will or not.

 _We are here, young Perseus._

 _Thank you. Percy's just fine. Thank you._

He climbed off, patting the Thestral, before starting up the mantra again, squinting at the spot he knew it was going to appear at. Sure enough, Grimmauld 12 squeezed into existence, tumbling out into his view.

Percy sprinted to the door and pounded harshly, impatiently. He could hear voices inside, footsteps, and then the face of Sirius Black, scraggly and worried.

"Percy?"

"Sirius, Harry's-"

"He knows." a cool voice drawled, and Percy glanced up into the face of Snape, cold and indifferent.

"Then we need to-"

"We are."

Percy scowled furiously, annoyed. "Then why-"

"Why aren't you with him!?" Sirius asked, deadly calm.

Percy flinched. "I-I thought-it doesn't matter. We have to go. Now." _It doesn't matter? But it does. It does so much, it physically hurts me to call for reinforcements instead of blindly charging in._ "He's at the Department of Mysteries. Did you call Dumbledore? Never mind, never mind-are we going?"

"Yes," Sirius said, impassive but with an almost murderous look on his face. "We are going. Right now."

He grabbed Percy's arm, flicked his wand, and the world turned upside down.

KIND OF OFF TOPIC, BUT DOES ANYBODY ELSE THINK THAT PERCY AND ALEX FIERRO WOULD BE TOTAL BROS!? OR AT LEAST IT WOULD BE COOL IF THEY WERE!? Ugh. My feels. Hitting me. Like a bludger. *dies* ANYWAYS! (I use caps a lot, huh.) I'm almost finished! Wow. If I do, this would be the FIRST STORY LONGER THAN THREE CHAPTERS THAT I WOULD yeeeaaahhh! Pretty sad it's a fanfiction. BUT ALSO NOT. Maybe two or three more chapters, and then voila. The end. :( I spent so long on this. I would honestly be surprised if there's more than three readers. BUT THANKS TO THOSE READERS! EVEN IF YOU'RE JUST READING THIS TO BASK IN DA STUPIDITY.

That's a pretty long note. Imma bye now. Ish. Not really. :D OH AND IT'S GONNA BE MOSTLY PERCY'S POV SO YEAH.


	20. Chapter 20

They didn't get far before the other members of the Order caught up. The kind-looking one with scars ripped across his face-scars blending into purple semi-circles beneath his eyes-clasped onto Sirius's arms and subtly told him that he had gotten Snape into a mumbling, angry mess.

Sirius simply said, "good", and then slowly allowed Remus (as Percy was introduced) to calm him down before they were rushing off again, cloak billowing behind.

If Percy wasn't so distracted by the thought of _Harry's in danger, Hermione's in danger, Luna's in danger. Ron's in danger. Neville's in danger. Ginny's in danger. Harry's in danger . . . ,_ he might've been detracted by the utter dramatics of the cloaks.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, he was.

"Where to?"

"Department of Mysteries."

Barely paying attention to his surroundings-which must've been a first for him, wow-Percy tapped his foot and twirled his wand and twirled Riptide and tried to will everything to go _fasterfasterfaster_.

By the time they reached their destination, Percy's body had calmed and his mind and gone quiet, like every time he prepared himself for battle. They reached it during its climax, and almost as soon as they entered, blasts of colored lights shot at them from every angle.

 _Like Star Wars. Except it's on Earth. And magic exists._

Reflexes polished from demigod life, Percy dodged behind the closest upturned desk, drawing out Riptide on instinct and peeking out just so he could get the gist of what was happening.

"Percy?"

He yelped, thumb on the cap of Riptide, just millimeters from pushing it off and decapitating the person before he noticed the familiar red. Ginny Weasley's eyes were large, her flaming hair tangled in knots down her back like she had just risen from bed.

"Ginny!? What's happening? How are you? Luna!? Is she okay? Where are the others?"

"Percy, Ron and Neville-Ron's got a suffocating brain thing stuck on him, and I dunno where the rest are, Percy you've gotta help them." she glared down at her ankle as if it were personally offending her, and then glanced back up at Percy imploringly.

"Where are they?"

And then he was off running again, dodging behind objects and spells, trying to maneuver around the battle taking place.

 _Alright, Ron. Neville. Harry. Hermione._

"STUPEFY!"

Again, Percy swiftly twisted out of the way and back into the carnage of wooden planks and glass balls, catching sight of black robes and blonde hair. He swore as another spell narrowly missed him, close to nipping his arm.

"Ger it off," someone moaned, close to him. Percy whipped around and then almost shrieked.

"Ron!" he rushed toward the Weasley, who thrashed around like he was undergoing a seizure. Percy fell down next to Ron, hands flitting over the disturbing pink-looking intestines.

Brains, Ginny had said.

He threw up a little in his mouth. "Hold on there, mate. Just a sec." He didn't think Ron could hold on for a second longer. But, fortunately, he was able to sense something saturating the organ, something Percy couldn't help but smile at. _Finally_.

He raised his hand, fingers stretched out to his friend, closed his eyes, and tugged.

"DON'D GIV ID DO DEM!"

Percy jerked violently, almost smashing the brain into a crystal ball. For a moment, he stood there, not knowing what to do, staring at Ron, glancing in the direction that he was sure Neville's voice had echoed from.

Apparently, the Death Eaters (was that what they were called? Honestly, Percy wanted to know the backstory of _that_.) didn't want to give Percy any thinking time (thanks). He cursed violently in Greek as a flash of red sparked in his peripheral and pain bloomed on his left cheek.

 _Well, thanks. Now I know what to do with this brain._

It was a tad hard at first-imagine trying to control a squishy, pink ball of tentacles that seemed to have a mind of its own-but Percy had always fared well in on-the-whim situations, and it didn't take long before he was pushing the brain at breakneck speed toward the Death Eater, who stood for a second and then almost tripped over his/her robes to get away. (Why couldn't all bad guys be zombies? Makes life easier for everybody. Ish. Unless it was, like, superpowered zombies.)

Percy supposed that was justified. He would run, too, if a octopus-like object started chasing after him. Like a cheetah's brain . . . ? If brains had legs, would the cheetah's be the fastest . . . ? Percy shook his head violently.

Ron giggled.

Immediately, he rushed back toward the Weasley, hauling the boy bridal style (honestly, he'll pound his head about it later. Now was not the time) and sprinting back to Ginny, who looked more than unhappy when he saw her. Her eyes lit up, however, when she saw her brother. Safe, albeit a little . . . drunk? Honestly, Percy didn't know.

"You got him!"

"Yeah."

Ron stared dazedly at his sister. "Your hair fuuuunnyy. Aha."

Ginny scrunched up her nose, mouth turning down.

"Listen, Ginny," Percy whispered hastily, espying over to check the overall progress of the battle. "Do you have any idea where those . . . um, brains are?"

"Brains? Like the one Ron-"

"Yeah."

She hesitated, glancing at Luna and then Ron, who was still laughing like someone had just told the most hilarious joke. Then she squinted at Percy, seemed to find what she was looking for, and muttered a series of warnings and locations to him.

Percy managed a "thanks", before he was running again to where he heard Neville's call. It didn't take long for him to find a brain-or, rather, _brains_ \- lolling on the ground like some . . . sad organs without a donor. Yeah. That.

He reached out, feeling a bit disgusted, and established his connection with the liquid soaked into the tentacles. It settled in his mind like a repeated mantra, and then he was moving on again.

Find. Connect. Chuck at passing Death Eaters.

Incapacitate.

Disarm.

He must've been quite a sight. Percy wondered if he could win any awards for it; he could just imagine the headlines: BRAIN BOY!

Annabeth would have a field day with it.

It came to the point where Percy ventured out far enough to arrive at the main battleground. To his relief, he spotted both Harry and Neville not too far away, both looking relatively alive, which was enough for him. It calmed him, also, when he recognized the familiar flowing white beard of Albus Dumbledore.

He barely resisted calling out and gesturing at one of the brains he had following him like some kind of twisted harem.

Sirius's laugh rang out, and Percy turned to see him fighting some sort of crazy-haired lady. He frowned, racking his mind, before remembering the family tree. His heart twisted.

He knew siblings fighting against siblings.

Percy bit his lip, debating whether or not he should intervene, trying to analyze the situation to see whether or not Sirius needed his help, when red shot out of the woman's wand like a laser beam and hit Sirius's chest like an arrow.

For a moment, everything was silent, like the magical community had been zapped into space. For a moment, Percy's brain went into a thoughtless overdrive, picking up a million things at once: the look on Remus's face, the look on the crazy-haired woman's face, Sirius's body, curving and falling and graceful.

His gut twisted violently.

He heard a girl screaming at him to stop, making him promise not to do something . . . something.

He heard the reverence in Harry's voice, the look in the boy's eyes when he saw Sirius. Like a parent. Something Harry had never experienced . . .

Percy thrusted out his hand.

And stopped Sirius mid-fall.

Arm outstretched, stolid, Percy slowly unclenched his fist, releasing the man from his puppet-hold. He barely registered Sirius collapsing onto his elbow, gasping, eyes wide with shock. His nerves tingled, excited, like someone had pumped a dozen Red Bulls into his system.

He was hyper-aware of everything and nothing.

Of the cordless tentacles behind him.

Of the blood, pumping through everybody. Of the heartbeats, _lub-dub, lub-dub_ , of his own breath. _Intoxicating_.

His fingers twitched on its own accord, a swallowing pressure, a suffocating presence . . . no.

 _No_.

In a desperate second, Percy flung his hand out, carrying the brain to the crazy-haired woman, breaking the rope that pulled taut at him, crooning at him to just take a little peek at a little bit more power, just a little bit.

He hardly maintained his grip on the wand in his hand, shaking so much it felt as if he were vibrating in place. Percy's mouth formed over the disarming spell, once, twice, and finally on the third try did the woman's wooden weapon fly toward him, almost clobbing him on the forehead.

"I'm sorry, Annabeth," he muttered. "Last time. Promise." his eyes watered, and Percy hurriedly wiped them away. His chest throbbed, overdosed with emotion, and Percy clutched at it, trying to slow his breathing.

He still had a battle.

No more crazy, restricted abilities. No more. Last time. Promises.

"Percy!"

His eyes shot open, gleaning the green light shooting towards him, blasting off like a vengeful beast.

He caught sight of pale white and blood red, and then he was releasing the last of his brain army, and then he was listening to someone scream, "EXPELLIARMUS!", and then he was blacking out, head throbbing, breath shortening.

Some cynical part thought, _Karma_.

And then nothing more.

 **GUYS GUYS GUYS TWO MORE CHAPTERS AHHHHHHHH! And yes, I saved Sirius. Jeez. Did you think I wouldn't?**


	21. Chapter 21

"Perseus."

Muddy.

Dragged.

Hazy.

"Perseus."

This time, the voice was closer, more annoyed. Percy squeezed his eyes together, trying to blink the blurriness away. A woman's figure, purple, wreathed in floating waves of silk, seemed to waver in front of him.

He closed his eyes again.

There was a sharp sound, like a snap, and Percy jolted up, vision cleared enough to see the hand in front of him. He stared blankly at it and then at the goddess behind it.

Hecate sniffed. "Good. You are here."

"Here?" Percy asked, rubbing his temples.

"Irrelevant. I am here to congratulate you."

"Congratulate?"

Hecate rolled her eyes. "Yes, demigod, should I turn you into a parrot to match that mimicking of yours?"

Percy was about to iterate "parrot" before deciding that that probably wasn't a good choice. Instead, he decided to repeat his previous question. "Where am I?"

The goddess sighed in frustration, pinching the bridge of her nose. "If you must know, you are in a dream right now. Currently, you are unconscious." then her lips twitched, so subtle that Percy almost did not notice it. "Good job in tangling up the dark lord."

"I did what?"

"You threw a brain at him."

For a moment, Percy sat (was he sitting? It felt as if he was just levitating in a pool of nothingness) dazedly, trying to recall everything. Then he shot up again, almost tripping onto Hecate.

"Harry! My friends! Are they okay?"

Hecate raised a slender eyebrow. "They are not dead, yes."

"But are they okay?"

"I am not the goddess of well being. Physically, yes. The mental toll? Well, Perseus, you have enough experience to be the judgement of that. But, yes, no one died." she squinted at him piercingly. "Especially that one Sirius Black."

Percy shifted uncomfortably under her stare, just remembering the trance he'd been in. The powers he had used, like the ones he used in Tartarus. Hidden from the gods' views. He gulped, waited for Hecate to disintegrate him, bellowing about how some abilities just shouldn't be.

The magic goddess did nothing. Instead, she looked away in an almost sly way, and said. "The young Harry Potter executed a disarming spell right before the killing curse hit you. That is the only reason you are not cold and six feet under. You should be grateful. The world of the wizarding world holds much power."

"Oh," Percy said dumbly. He realized that Hecate was implying that to her, his powers were not unprecedented. Well, another close slip from death. What else was new? It was sort of depressing how casually Percy could take these events. "What now?"

Now, the goddess looked slightly uncomfortable. She sighed again, but this time, Percy didn't think it was out of annoyance of pesky mortals like him not getting anything. "I would've preferred not informing you of this, but . . . I suppose you've done enough to be aware before-" she did not finish.

Percy had a bad feeling about this. "What?"

"I will have to . . . take your . . . presence out of the magic world."

He furrowed his brows, bemused. "Already?"

"Yes. Saving Black and temporarily rendering Riddle useless was sufficient to put the effects into place."

"Oh. Okay. So you're gonna . . . take my presence out of the magic world."

"And take . . . the magic world out of you."

Now, Percy wasn't known for his sharpness, but he was cognitive enough to understand that. Immediately, he tensed, hand hovering over where his pocket should be, where Riptide should be. A scowl found its way across his face, his emotions.

So many things crossed his mind, everything just seemed to lodge in his throat. His memory, wiped. Again? His mind meddled with for the second time. From a goddess. For some stupid quest.

Was Hecate planning this from the beginning? "Was that why you tried to keep me from telling so many people?"

The goddess's eyes widened slightly, surprised. "Observant. Yes, it is much easier to, ah, modify the memories of as few people as possible."

"Modify. No. No. Why-if-no."

"Perseus," now, Hecate's tone was sharp, matching the wisps of purple that curled off her fingertips, "I believe this isn't a choice."

"You can't just expect-no. You can't just do that! I-I-having your brain messed with is-no!" somewhere, buried deep within his thoughts, Percy knew that that probably wasn't the best way to talk to an immortal being that could blast you off the face of the earth, but anger clouded it.

Hecate's expression softened just the slightest bit. "I cannot pretend I know your predicament, but there is a reason why the wizarding community has been kept from the mythological one for as long as it has existed. As thankful as I am for ameliorating a dire situation in my domain, I am also one to stick with the norms."

He didn't understand half of what she was saying, but he got the gist. AKA, not listening to you, puny mortal, lemme just extract some part of you WAHAHAHAHAHAA.

"You are not the only one," Hecate said when the silence stretched for too long. "Everyone who was in contact with your situation will have to undergo it." The unsaid definition of _everyone_ didn't go unnoticed.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Percy snapped.

"I advise you to watch your tone, Perseus Jackson."

Taking in a deep breath, he held it, and then let it go, trying to calm himself. It wouldn't matter anyways if he got himself killed out of disobedience. But he couldn't just . . . just . . .

He screamed in his head. Sometimes, it just felt so suffocating to have beings just control his life. Like, oh, can you do this small small favor for me? It's not dangerous at all! You'll only brush death maybe a bajillion times. You can't do it? Toodle-loo! You're no use to me, so have fun being dead!

"How much?" he muttered through gritted teeth. "I missed an entire school year with Annabeth because of this. And I still need to catch up on my own lessons."

"Enough. If the Fates have it, then maybe not." was Hecate's vague answer. "If that is it, I am-"

"Wait. If you're going to take them away at least let me say . . . goodbye. To my friends."

She narrowed her eyes. "Waiting longer will not expunge the inevitable."

"I know. But, a dream. Like me. Right here." Percy hesitated, then added a reluctant, "Please." he met Hecate's eyes, trying to discern her expression. Finally, after what seemed like an eon, she turned away.

"Very well. But only three."

"Okay," Percy whispered as if afraid he would change her decision if he spoke any louder. He watched as Hecate disappeared in a flash of glowing gold, replaced, instead, with three very confused mages.

He stepped forward, trying to blink the tears out of his eyes. "Hey, guys." his voice cracked, and Percy swallowed.

Hermione's hair was even more poofy than usual, and Ron's pajama pants hung in that familiar too-short way. Harry turned, blurry-eyed, no glasses. "Percy?"

He opened his mouth to reply, choked, and then stepped forward, wrapping the trio in a hug. It was all sharp elbows and awkward pats, but to Percy, it felt like a stab in the gut.

"I'll miss you guys," his mouth formed around the words. His breath an air of farewell. Percy didn't know if they heard it.

 **Heh. There are so many instances of deep, philosophical crap hidden (or, one. I exaggerate a lot.) in this story. Like the** _ **golden**_ **trio. That's why Hecate disappeared in a** _ **golden**_ **light. Heh. Heh. Heeeeeeeeeeeeh.**


	22. Chapter 22

The sunlight filtered through the silk curtains, following the breeze like an afterthought.

In the corner, the fountain gurgled and spurted out a stream of water. A constant rush of a tiny cataract. The liquid threw indistinct blobs on the wall, like inside an aquarium, illuminated by the light.

Percy blinked tiredly, rubbing the gunk out of his eyes. For a moment, he laid there silently, legs tangled in his blankets, hair splayed over his forehead. Mutely, he noted that he needed a haircut.

Someone laughed outside, distant and familiar, followed by what sounded like a small explosion. Also distant. Also familiar.

The clock beside him winked seven o'clock at him.

He groaned and shifted, catching his bearings as he stared blankly around the room. A part of him urged him to get up, to dress, and then to run toward the dining pavilion. A part of him screamed that he was late to something.

But when Percy tried to remember just exactly what, he drew up empty. Feeling uneasy at the less-than-welcomed thoughts (so similar to his days roaming around after training with Lupa), he slid out of bed, bare feet touching the bare floor. A wave of homesickness crashed onto him, like a delayed reaction of nostalgia, and Percy frowned.

Deciding not to dwell on the situation that caused him brain-pain so early in the morning, he slowly tugged a random shirt on (after, of course, the customary sniff to make sure it didn't smell like someone died in it) and shuffled out of his cabin, shielding his eyes from the brightness.

He took a while to take in the scene, head turning languidly to the left, then the right, imprinting the panorama into his mind. Still, something nagged at him.

"Hey."

Percy startled, and then turned to face the familiar countenance of his girlfriend. Annabeth smiled at him, blonde curls alight, gray eyes reflecting the sun. Three books were tucked under her arm, large tomes that Percy would've never touched in his lifetime if he could help it.

"Got your sleep?"

"Yeah," Percy said hesitantly, trying to smush the feeling of intense joy away. He was always happy when he saw Annabeth, but this was bordering on clingy. Like he had spent a year away from her rather than . . .

"Good. You better not go on a quest so soon again. I had to copy down an extra copy of notes, so you better read through them thoroughly, seaweed brain."

"Quest?"

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. For Hecate."

When Percy did not respond, she rolled her eyes in exasperation like, _honestly, how do I deal with him?_ "She called you to retrieve something for her."

As if that had triggered something, a wave of memories hit him like a sluggish river. Moments of sleeping with his head propped on his backpack. Traveling across New York and into parts of Minnesota, trying to catch up to rumors and gossip.

"Oh. Yeah. I think I'm going to smell like polecat fart for the rest of my life."

Annabeth laughed, and gently pushed him to the mess hall. Percy dazedly walked forward. Again, he felt conflicted, but as soon as he posed the dozens of questions in his head, a soothing sensation fell upon him, and he found himself relaxing.

 _Right. Back from a quest of chasing polecats and trying to avoid being turned into one. And now I'm back, alive. Which means food time._

It was late enough that Camp Half-Blood was already streaming with activities. He watched as someone fell off the Rock Climbing wall, and then shot back up and attempted it again. Pegasuses (Pegasi?) flew around leisurely, some with demigods on their backs.

He sat down and focused on his plate. Before the usual _pancakes_ could cross his mind, toast and orange marmalade appeared, with a side of what seemed like a pie. His cup filled up with a pumpkin color, thick and fresh. Percy squinted in confusion.

Like all the other times he was puzzled, he turned to Annabeth, who sat next to him at the Poseidon table, curls falling into her face as she studiously read her book. Knowing that it would take a while to capture her attention when she was submerged in her architecture books, Percy shrugged and took a sip of whatever was in his cup.

Surprisingly, it tasted alright. Not as good as blue coke, but still acceptable. It registered on his tongue quite well, like he had been acquainted with it before. Which was strange because Percy prided himself on remembering the different kinds of foods he ate, and he was sure he'd remember drinking something like that.

Munching on the pie-thing, Percy curiously peeked over Annabeth's shoulder.

On the page, a picture of a building rose up. It didn't look particularly welcoming to Percy, all gaps and bricks (Jason would _love_ it. Grover would probably swamp it with plants), but there was something about it that struck a chord inside him. Like the weird drink. And the toast. And the pastry that had appeared on his plate that he had never consumed before.

"We should go there," Percy blurted loudly, the words pushing their way out of his mouth like they had a mind of its own.

Annabeth flinched, and then glanced up at him, eyebrows scrunching in that cute way of hers. Apparently Percy being interested in her architect ideals was enough to shock her out of the world she entered whenever she was reading. "What?"

He gestured at the picture. "There. Seems cool."

"Scotland?" her tone was bewildered, and she glanced at Percy strangely, like he had just offered to skim through the book for her. ( _Please_. If that day came, it'd prolly be when he'd be at swordpoint and brinking on dying.)

He nodded vigorously. "Yeah. Someday."

 _What is wrong with me?_

Annabeth squinted at him as he conjured up another of the pie-things he had and shoved it into his mouth.

"Did you suddenly become invested in European cultures on your quest or something?"

Percy shrugged. "I dunno. Why?"

"First, that's a treacle tart." she gestured at the pie-thing. "Second, that's Scotland." she pointed at the picture. "Third." once more, Annabeth narrowed her eyes, analytical. "Did your accent change?"

"What?" Percy shook his head, befuddled. "I just . . . I thought it'd be nice. Once everything's over. We could settle down. Travel. I know you're kinda obsessed with . . . " now it was his turn to signal the picture in her book.

Annabeth's eyes softened, and she smiled. Her hand found its way to his, and Percy immediately twined them together.

"Sure, Percy."

* * *

About 3175 miles away, a boy with a lightning bolt scar and eyes as green as the _Avada Kedavra_ spell stared across his dorm, a pensive scowl on his face as he stared at the empty space between his and Ron's beds.

In his left hand, he clenched a newspaper detailing the capture of Voldemort and the innocence of Sirius Black. In his right hand, held carefully between a forefinger and a thumb, was a note from his godfather, an invitation to spend the summer with him.

He was surrounded by friends.

Imminent danger and the Dursleys seemed a washed-out nightmare.

But he swore something was missing.

* * *

 **GUYS. I'M DONE. I DON'T THINK I'M PROCESSING IT RIGHT NOW BUT AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OH MY GOSH THIS STORY OH MY GOSH. THIS IS THE FIRST STORY. WOAH. MY GOSH. WOAHHH! I WANT TO SAY THANK YOU FOR ALL DA READERS WHO HAD TO SUFFER THROUGH THIS AND WOW WOW WOW WOW AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.**

 **I've always imagined that I would write a whole entire speech at the end detailing my life . . . but yeah, I'm drawing up a blank. BUT I HAVE A SERIES OF QUESTIONS THAT I'M DYING OVER SO HERE, SHARE THE DYING-NESS WITH ME.**

 **1\. If Percy had been trained by Gaea and never met the "seven" (not with him in it, of course. Maybe Nico? Or Bianca? I dunno) until the Heroes of Olympus series, what would've happened? And how would he have helped if he turned to the gods' side?**

 **2\. If Percy accepted immortality, how would he have affected the Heroes of Olympus series?**

 **Okay, so maybe just two questions.**

 **AND WOW I'M GONNA REGRET THIS LATER FOR NOT ASKING A THOUSAND MORE QUESTIONS AND A THOUSAND MORE DRAMATIC CRAP, BUT I GUESS RIGHT NOW IT'S A BYE!? Maybe I'll edit this story later on. Probably not. Gosh, this story took way to long to finish. :D Peace and all that,**

 **THE END.**

 **(Well, to this part of the story. Go and imagine whatever you want to imagine will happen next. Or write fanfiction of fanfiction. Or flame this however much you'd like. Print it out and burn it if it'd make you feel better. BUT I'M DONE. SHOULD I BE SOBBING?)**


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